Vaccines suppress COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations in nursing homes

In nursing homes, vaccinating against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) seems to rapidly reduce the rates of infection, morbidity, and mortality, a recent study has found.

Researchers surveyed 136 nursing homes that had been vaccinated early (from 18 December 2020 to 2 January 2021; n=12,157) as opposed to 144 that had received vaccines later (from 3 January 2021 to 18 January 2021; n=13,221) during the pandemic.

The primary study outcome was the calculated 7-day moving average of new SARS-CoV-2 infections per 100 residents at risk. In nursing homes that received vaccines earlier showed somewhat lower infection rates than those that had been immunized later.

A similar effect was reported for deaths and hospitalizations, though trendlines tended to be more volatile for these factors due to the lower number of events. Nevertheless, 5–6 weeks after their final clinics, the early vaccination group showed lower rates of a death-hospitalization composite outcome compared to facilities with a later roll-out.

Model-based estimates confirmed the above graph-derived trends. The model showed a statistically significant drop in incident infections as early as the first week after vaccinations in the early group, suggesting 1.6 and 2.5 fewer infections per 100 at-risk residents during the first and second weeks after immunization, respectively.

Over the next 5 weeks, the model predicted a cumulative reduction of 5.2 cases per 100 at-risk residents. In terms of the composite between hospitalization and/or death, the model predicted 1.1 to 3.8 fewer incidents per 100 infected residents per day, around 5–7 weeks after the final facility in the early group had rolled out the vaccines.