AARP reports over 50 percent of nursing home residents have received booster

According to AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard data, updated late last week, just over half of Wyoming’s nursing home residents have received a COVID-19 vaccine and booster. 

The booster data is new to the dashboard and suggests 38.4% of nursing home residents in the US have received a booster. 

Wyoming’s 50.6% of nursing home residents with a booster, places the Cowboy State at 15th in the nation. Vermont leads the nation with 70% of its nursing home residents having received the booster. Arizona claims the nation’s lowest percentage of nursing home residents with a booster at just 17.3%. 

Overall, 89.4% of Wyoming’s nursing home residents are considered fully vaccinated, above the national average of 86.6% according to the AARP.

While Wyoming’s percentage of nursing home residents with a COVID-19 vaccine booster is above the national average, just 11.1% of nursing home staff have received a booster, which is under the national average of just 15%. 

In the four week period ending Nov. 21, Wyoming had the seventh-highest ratio of nursing home resident deaths per 100 residents at .42. However, that number represented substantial change from the previous four-week period in which Wyoming saw 1.53 resident deaths per 100 residents – second in the nation. 

Wyoming’s number of confirmed COVID-19 cases for nursing home residents over the four-week period ending Nov. 21, also dropped significantly from the previous four weeks with 1.92 cases per 100 being reported, down from 8.49 cases per 100 nursing home residents in late September and early November. While case rates declined slightly compared to the same time period last month, in AARP’s dashboard, looking week to week, the number of cases increased each week during the four weeks ending Nov. 21. 

Wyoming’s ratio of nursing home staffers per 100 residents with COVID-19 over the last four weeks is 4.15, which places it sixth highest in the nation, but well behind Alaska’s rate of 10.80. Once again that number has fallen from the previous four-week period when staff case ratios sat at 8.6 cases per 100 nursing home residents. 

The national average is 1.4 staff cases per 100 residents. Those high Wyoming staff rates have led to 65.7% of Wyoming nursing homes reporting a staff shortage over the last four weeks, much higher than the national average of 30%.

The AARP does report one positive of note, no healthcare facilities in the state are self-reporting a shortage of personal protective equipment.