COVID-related deaths in New Jersey nursing homes almost tripled in December, with more on this stretch than in the previous three months combined, according to a published report.
The news comes when what is expected to be more than a month of vaccinations for nursing home residents and employees at Garden State were starting.
He underscored the fact that New Jersey has the highest number of deaths per capita in coronavirus-related nursing homes in the country – about 45% of its more than 17,000 confirmed cases.
And the numbers are growing along with the biggest increase since May in coronavirus cases in New Jersey.
The death toll in New Jersey nursing homes in December includes at least 310 long-term care residents and an employee in more than 100 facilities, according to NJ Advance Media.
The number continued its dramatic increase from 45 in September to 65 in October and 111 in November, the report says.
Although they are doing everything possible to prevent the disease, it “is still arriving at the long-term care facility,” said state health commissioner Judith Persichilli earlier this week.
More than 425 facilities have had active outbreaks of COVID-19, more than double the number from early November, she said.
More than 5,600 residents and employees tested positive – a 72% jump in new cases starting in November, NJ Advance Media reported.
The locations vary in size for a nursing home in Warren County, where almost all residents have apparently been infected by larger facilities affiliated with hospitals, the report found.
In a facility in Gloucester County that escaped the first wave of the pandemic without much damage, for example, the virus last month killed 14 of the 87 residents who contracted it.
Another in Ocean County had 17 COVID-related deaths in December, when 80 residents and 54 employees were infected, the report says.
Initial vaccinations were scheduled for 539 nursing home facilities in New Jersey, with more expected by early February, Persichilli said.
READ MORE: Deaths Continue to Rise in NJ Nursing Homes
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