Florida near the bottom in rate of nursing home residents that are fully vaccinated with a booster

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A COVID-19 dashboard published by AARP shows that fewer than 24% of Florida nursing home residents have been fully vaccinated and gotten a booster. That’s lower than anywhere else in the country except Arizona and Washington, D.C. Florida nursing home staff also have a below-average rate of vaccination with a booster.

In an emailed news release, AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson says Florida has more work to do when it comes to protecting nursing home residents and workers.

Declining deaths and cases

“In this new report, Florida continues to see decreasing trends of coronavirus cases and deaths in our state’s nursing homes. Additionally, Florida’s vaccination of nursing home workers increased to nearly 64 percent since last month’s report. This is welcome news with the new Omicron variant on the scene,” Johnson said.

Boosters for nursing home staff and patients

“It’s clear that our state has more work to do to ensure that nursing home residents and staff have access to booster shots. Florida ranks third-worst in the nation with only 24 percent of residents receiving boosters – well behind the national average of 39 percent.

“Nursing home staff receiving booster shots is even lower, at nine percent, which is in the bottom third when compared across states. Let’s finish the fight against COVID-19. It’s essential that we get booster shots into the arms of our most vulnerable residents and the workers that care for them.”

Here is the Florida Department of Health’s Vaccine Locator.

How the AARP created the dashboard

Using data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—which is self-reported by nursing homes—the AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio, created the AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard to provide four-week snapshots of the pandemic’s effect on nursing homes residents and staff.

The federal data do not include residents or staff of assisted-living facilities, group homes and other congregate elder-care facilities.

The new report adds booster shot data in the four weeks ending Nov. 21, 2021.

-AARP

According to the AARP, these are some “December Dashboard Highlights”

• New nursing home resident deaths in Florida represent 3.4 percent of 1,526 total COVID-19 deaths occurring in U.S. nursing homes during this reporting period.
• Florida reported 52 new nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19, down from 92 deaths in the previous month’s report.
• Approximately 32 percent (+10 percent since last month’s report), or 224 of Florida’s nearly 700 nursing homes, have met the industry standard and vaccinated at least 75 percent of their staff.