The news about the institutional care of vulnerable seniors during the Covid-19 pandemic just keeps getting worse in too many unacceptable ways. Just consider:
- The coronavirus has hit more than 2,100 nursing homes, killing more than 2,300 people, the Wall Street Journal and NBC News both have reported, based on the news organizations’ separate outreach to public health and industry groups. Those figures are very likely to be low.
- The New York Times reported that the death count in nursing homes in the tri-state region alone (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) has hit 2,000, with thousands more sickened. The newspaper added this ominous note: “The actual infection rate in nursing homes is almost certainly higher than the data indicate because few homes have the capacity to test residents. The assumption among many in the industry is that every nursing home in the region has people with Covid-19.”