New statistics provided by the Georgia Department of Community Health show that almost all residents of large nursing homes in Georgia have now been tested for COVID-19.
The Georgia Department of Community Health’s June 11, 2020 Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 report indicated that 97% of nursing home residents in facilities with 25 or more beds have now been tested for COVID-19. This marks a 12% improvement in one week. Additionally, staff testing in nursing homes is up 13% week-over-week.
Why it Matters: The coronavirus spreads rapidly through nursing homes and the elderly are most at risk for the virus’ most fatal symptoms. Testing all residents of nursing homes helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the most vulnerable group exposed to it.
Across all Long-Term Care Facilities with 25 beds or more, 74% of residents and 54% of staff members have now been tested, up 9% and 10%, respectively, in the last week.
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“Nursing homes and all long-term care facilities remain critically important battlegrounds in our fight against COVID-19,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “Thanks to the hard work of state officials from the Department of Public Health, Department of Community Health, Georgia National Guard, and Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, we are making significant progress in staff and resident testing while also supplying facilities with the resources and PPE that they need.”
On June 4, the health department also began reporting on residents recovered across all long-term care facilities with 25 beds or more. Recovered residents data is the cumulative number of residents who previously tested positive for COVID-19 who have now recovered from the virus based on subsequent negative tests, absence of symptoms, or other appropriate criteria as assessed by the facility.
In the department’s initial report on residents recovered, 2,759 residents had recovered from COVID-19 out of 6,040 total residents who had tested positive. In DCH’s report Thursday, 3,269 residents have recovered from COVID-19 out of 6,259 total residents who have tested positive.
