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AARP warns of rising COVID cases in RI nursing homes

Providence Journal - 9/17/2021

Rhode Island nursing homes saw an uptick in COVID-19 cases at the end of August, AARP Rhode Island said Friday as it urged renewed efforts to vaccinate residents and staff.

New Rhode Island nursing home cases rose from 0.05 per 100 residents in July to 0.34 per 100 residents in the four weeks ending Aug. 22, the senior advocacy group said.

Nursing home staff cases in Rhode Island rose from 0.11 per 100 employees to 0.88 per 100 employees.

Both those rates are below the national average, which was 1.2 nursing home cases per 100 residents and 2 cases per 100 nursing home staff members last month.

The new data "underscores why all staff and residents in long-term care facilities must be vaccinated as quickly as possible," AARP Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor said in a news release. "For unvaccinated nursing home residents, their risk of an infection is back up to the levels we saw a year ago. Too many people in Rhode Island who lived and worked in nursing facilities have died from COVID-19, and no one wants to see that tragedy repeated."

AARP reported that 92% of Rhode Island nursing home residents and 76% of Rhode Island nursing home staff were vaccinated by Aug. 22. In the United States 83.7% of nursing home residents and 63.5% of nursing home staff are vaccinated.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee has mandated all health care workers in the state be vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 1.

panderson@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @PatrickAnderso_

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