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Saturday, April 18, 2020

Shockingly lethal outbreaks are killing far more people at nursing homes than previously known

More than six weeks after the first coronavirus deaths in a nursing home, outbreaks unfold across the country. About a fifth of U.S. virus deaths are linked to nursing facilities.

The first warning of the devastation that the coronavirus could wreak inside American nursing homes came in late February, when residents of a facility in suburban Seattle perished, one by one, as families waited helplessly outside.

In the ensuing six weeks, large and shockingly lethal outbreaks have continued to ravage nursing homes across the nation, undeterred by urgent new safety requirements. Now a nationwide tally by The New York Times has found the number of people living in or connected to nursing homes who have died of the coronavirus to be at least 7,000, far higher than previously known.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to the article over 15,000 nursing homes under the control of government. Most of the mitigation referred to in the article began over a month and a half ago. With the residents being on average in their upper 70’s - 90’s with underlying medical conditions, 7000 deaths seems to be very minimal. It’s is unfortunate as we say to lose one life, but these folks are very vulnerable and to lose only 2.1 on average per facility (15,000 facilities divided by the 7,000 deaths) should indicate the personnel in the nursing homes must be doing a tremendous job.

Anonymous said...

Prisoners are let out of prisons so they can escape being confined with the virus, but the elderly are shut in and dying in groups. I've seen the way nursing homes are run first-hand. Some of the people working there are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to nursing care and cleanliness. get your relatives out, they are safer in your home.