The AARP has released a new report analyzing COVID-19 cases in nursing homes across the state, and how infections are affecting residents. In early Spring, the report showed a very small margin of long-term care patients contracted the coronavirus, but now outbreaks are becoming more common. Kimberly Campbell is the State Director of the AARP of Mississippi.
Campbell says “We want to make sure that the push is not to think that COVID is over. As much as all of us want it to be over, it really is not over. And that’s not to scare people and say you can’t enjoy your life, but I do think it’s important to remember the most vulnerable. And those are really are those that are in the nursing homes.”
Because long-term care residents often have a higher risk of severe illness, they were among the first to get vaccinated. Now, many have received booster doses, and the fatality rate has dropped significantly according to health officials. Vaccination rates among long-term care staff continue to lag behind, and Campbell says that increases the risk for their patients.
Campbell says “That’s the part of the population that we’ve always got to remain vigilant and on top of what the CDC is saying, on top of what the trends are showing up, on top of what our own providers here are telling us. Those residents, we can’t ever relax when it comes to them.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 2,000 nursing home residents in Mississippi have died from COVID-19.
