Latest CMS, CDC and NHSN Nursing Home COVID-19 Data

Posted in COVID-19, Senior Living

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

CMS has posted nursing home data for the week ending March 6, 2022.

Comparing the March 6th data to the February 27th data shows these changes:

  • Resident vaccination rate rose 0.2% from the previous week
  • Residents with booster doses (new the week of 2/6) increased by 1.1% this past week
  • Staff vaccination rate increased 0.5% this week (same increase as the previous week)
  • Staff with booster doses (new the week of 2/6) increased by 1.5% this past week
  • An additional 3,827 resident cases were confirmed/reported this week
  • An additional 156 resident deaths were confirmed/reported this week
  • An additional 3,532 staff cases were confirmed/reported this week
  • The number of staff deaths confirmed/reported this week were 8 fewer than the previous week – likely a data correction

Be sure to review the list of every nursing home with recent resident and staff vaccination rates and other pertinent data – especially your facility’s vaccination rates as this data will be used for completing the COVID-19 Matrix during survey.  State surveyors look at this data prior to entering your facility for survey (during their preparation). This data is current as of the week ending March 6, 2022.

The CDC COVID Data Trackershows these current community transmission levels:

Last month, the CDC added the omicron subvariant BA.2 to the online tracker.  On March 15, 2022, Reuters reported that the “BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron was estimated to be 23.1% of the coronavirus variants circulating in the United States as of March 12 (CDC)… Scientists are tracking a rise in cases caused by BA.2, which is spreading rapidly in parts of Asia and Europe…the sub-variant now makes up 39% of total cases in regions including New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.  In states such as Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, the sub-variant now makes up about 38.6% of total cases… For the week ending March 5, CDC estimates that BA.2 made up 13.7% of circulating variants, revised up from 11.6%.”

The Omicron sub-variant BA.2 appears to be much more contagious and more transmissible than the BA.1 sub-variant. For more information, please reference Omicron and the BA.2 Subvariant: A Guide to What We Know – updated by Yale Medicine just this morning (March 18, 2022).

Here’s the U.S. COVID-19 Community Levels by County Map date as posted March 17, 2022:

Remember that healthcare facilities use the community transmission levels data and NOT the community levels data (shown above) for testing and other IPC requirements/recommendations.

Lastly, the NHSN Nursing Home Covid-19 Data Dashboard provides this data as of March 14, 2022, at 5:30am ET: