'Out Of Control Fire': Virus Hits Nursing Homes Worse Than Ever

Tim Moran
Updated ·6 min read

ACROSS AMERICA — Bill Sweeney, the chief lobbyist for the AARP, compares the coronavirus to an "out-of-control fire" ravaging the nation's 15,000 nursing homes, telling NBC News that "you stamp it out in one place, then it pops up somewhere else."

That's especially true in often red state rural America, where the issue of mask-wearing has torn some families apart. In some places, requests or requirements to wear a mask are outright ignored.

"Masks are still not acceptable here, and that is very frustrating. The community is not really understanding," said Julie Thorson, the president and CEO of Friendship Haven in Iowa, told NBC News. "You are worried about the inconvenience of a mask, and my staff has been sweating and crying through their masks since March."

Across the country, the virus has spread faster in recent weeks than it ever has before, and people who live in nursing homes remain at a particularly heightened risk.

An outbreak at the La Salle Veterans Home in rural Illinois has killed 27 veterans and infected nearly 200 residents and staff, according to The Associated Press.

Illinois State Sen. Sue Rezin said only four coronavirus cases were reported at the home on Nov. 4, and "very quickly" that number rose to almost 200.

The first week of November saw the highest rates of confirmed coronavirus cases at nursing home nationwide. More than 1,300 nursing homes that week had three or more confirmed cases, according to an NBC News data analyzation. And that doesn't include cases at the assisted living facilities not tracked by the federal government.

Nursing homes in the Midwest have been hit the worst. Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa have reported the most nursing home coronavirus cases, the NBC News report shows.

The AARP has urged Congress for more funding for nursing homes facing the crisis. But many who work with the elderly say it has not been enough.

“Our pleas are being ignored," Katie Sloan Smith, president and CEO of LeadingAge, an organization that aims to free America from ageism, said. "The support we have received has been insufficient and is running out quickly.”

The Latest

Thanksgiving Day in America brought with it a nearly record-breaking 180,830 new coronavirus cases, as well as 2,313 more deaths reported on Wednesday.

As it stands, the U.S. is averaging 176,733 new cases of the virus over the past week, according to a New York Times database.

But rising case numbers, it appears, did not stop more than a million people from traveling by plane.

The Transportation Security Administration announced 1,070,967 people passed through American airports on Wednesday in keeping with what is historically the busiest travel day of the year.

The number of travelers, although much higher than in previous weeks, is still less than half of the number of travelers who flew in 2019. Last year, 2,624,250 people flew the day before Thanksgiving.

Delta Airlines announced Thursday it is allowing a limited number of passengers to travel from Atlanta, Georgia, to Rome, Italy, without having to quarantine on arrival.

According to a release from the airline, the program relies on a strict testing protocol to ensure flights remain “coronavirus free.”

The airline said passengers can take the flight and bypass the quarantine requirement if they test negative three times: first with a polymerase chain reaction test, then with rapid tests given at the airport in Atlanta and again upon arriving in Rome.

The airline said its quarantine-free protocol for 60 percent-full flights was developed with experts from the Mayo Clinic.

"We can predict that the risk of COVID-19 infection – on a flight that is 60 percent full – should be nearly one in a million,” said Dr. Henry Ting, chief value officer of the Mayo Clinic.

While the coronavirus has impacted many Americans' Thanksgiving plans, football fans still have something to be thankful for.

Players for the Texans, Lions, Cowboys and the Washington football team all returned negative tests for the coronavirus, meaning the teams’ two games are set to go on, ESPN host Adam Schefter reported.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court late Wednesday sided with churches and synagogues in New York, ruling 5-4 that the state could not enforce certain restrictions on houses of worship.

The court ruled red and orange zone restrictions that limit attendance at houses of worship to 10 and 25 people, respectively, were too restrictive.

Avi Schick, an attorney for Agudath Israel of America, wrote in an email to the Associated Press: "This is an historic victory. This landmark decision will ensure that religious practices and religious institutions will be protected from government edicts that do not treat religion with the respect demanded by the Constitution."

Drugmaker AstraZeneca, meanwhile, announced this week that it had made a mistake in calculating vaccine dosages, only giving some trial participants a partial dose of the vaccine.

Some are now questioning whether claims that the vaccine is 90 percent effective will hold up under additional testing, the New York Times reports.

Still, an AstraZeneca executive said the error was made by a contractor and quickly corrected with a plan to continue testing the vaccine in different doses.

The U.S. government plans to send 6.4 million doses of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to cities across the United States within 24 hours of regulatory clearance.

The expectation, according to a Washington Post report, is that shots will be administered to front-line health care workers. The first round of vaccines would cover about one-third of the nation's 20 million health care workers.

Holiday travelers pass through Los Angeles international Airport on Thanksgiving eve as the COVID-19 spike worsens. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images
Holiday travelers pass through Los Angeles international Airport on Thanksgiving eve as the COVID-19 spike worsens. Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

The Numbers

At least 2,313 new coronavirus deaths and 180,830 new cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, according to a New York Times database. Over the past seven days, the United States has seen an 38 percent increase in cases compared to two weeks prior and averaged more than 176,733 cases each day.

As of Thursday, 46 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 12.79 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday evening, and more than 262,435 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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This article originally appeared on the Across America Patch