As covid-19 cases surge, global study paints grim picture for elder-care homes

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Sat, 2020-10-17 16:27 — mike kraft

As covid-19 cases surge, global study paints grim picture for elder-care homes Across 26 countries, residents of long-term-care facilities accounted for an average of 47 percent of all covid-19 deaths. Adam Taylor Washington Post

The novel coronavirus tore through long-term-care facilities for the elderly in spring. It continued into summer months, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead around the world.

Now, as autumn heads toward winter and the Northern Hemisphere prepares for a cold-weather surge in coronavirus cases, experts who focus on long-term care are desperate to avert the next chapter in the disaster.

There are few easy lessons. In many countries, the trend is hard to escape: The larger the coronavirus outbreak in an area, the more deaths elder-care facilities there can expect to see, according to the results of an ongoing transnational research project, which published new data this week.

Across 26 countries, elder-care home residents have accounted for an average of 47 percent of recorded coronavirus deaths, according to data collected by the International Long-Term Care Policy Network, a global collaboration between academics and policymakers. ...

Long-term care facilities, which are not widespread in every country, tend to concentrate vulnerable populations in conditions suited to the spread of the virus.

In Canada, where more than 9,300 people had died of covid-19 by the start of October, roughly 80 percent of recorded deaths occurred among long-term care residents, the researchers found — the highest proportion out of more than two dozen countries studied.

In the United States, roughly 41 percent of covid-19 deaths were recorded among nursing-home residents. As of last month, at least 82,105 resident had died, the highest figure among the nations studied. In Spain, they caused around 63 percent of almost 33,000 deaths. ...

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