ISS, September 30th 2021
The weekly death-rate due to Sars-CoV-2 infection has decreased sharply since the start of the vaccination campaign, and has remained below 0.01% also in recent weeks. This is what emerges from the third update of the surveillance report on the long-term care facilities produced by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità - ISS (Italian National Institute of Health) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the National Authority for the rights of persons deprived of personal liberty, and the ARS Toscana. According to the report there has been a new increase in the number of cases since July which means that the immunity of the guests of these facilities needs to be strengthened.
There are 852 residential care facilities that participated in the surveillance of long-term socio-health facilities during the COVID-19 emergency, from 5 October 2020 to 19 September 2021, for a total of 31,178 beds. Of these, 341 were nursing homes for non self-sufficient elderly, for a total of 15,031 beds.
These are the main findings of the survey:
• The weekly incidence of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases in residential care facilities increased markedly in October and November 2020, corresponding to the second epidemic wave, with a peak in November 2020 of 3.2% in nursing homes for the elderly and 3.1% in all residential care facilities, in line with what was observed in the general population. The incidence decreased with the rollout of the vaccination campaign, reaching values close to 0.01% of new cases per week during May and June 2021. In the months of July, August and September 2021 there was a slight increase in the number of cases in the residential care facilities, which reached 0.3% in nursing homes for the elderly and 0.2% in all residential care facilities in the week from 30 August to 5 September 2021.
• The indicator relating to the percentage of deaths of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients in residential care facilities in relation to the total number of guests dropped considerably since May 2021, and was below 0.01% in the week from 13 to 19 September 2021 for both types of facilities considered.
• The prevalence of fully vaccinated guests increased progressively in the period under observation and reached 94% of the guests of the nursing homes for non self-sufficient elderly and 93% for all residential care facilities in the week from 13 to 19 September 2021.
"The data - comments Graziano Onder, director of the Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-Metabolic Diseases and Aging of the ISS - show a slight increase again in outbreaks in the summer months, in line with the findings for the general population. This finding underlines the need to strengthen the immunity of residents through a booster or additional dose. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that, while there was an increase in the number of new cases and outbreaks during the summer, the number of deaths from COVID-19 occurring in these facilities was very low and less than 0.01% per week. This was also due to the 'protective effect of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination against the more severe forms of COVID-19, as shown by the comparison with the general death-rate. "
Comparison between deaths from all causes (yellow line) and from Covid (red)
Deaths among guests for all causes SARS-CoV-2 positive guests who died at the facility
SARS-CoV-2 positive guests who were transferred to a hospital
Fully vaccinated guests against the SARS-CoV-2 virus
Start of vaccination campaign
Percentage (%) of deaths and hospitalization
Percentage (%) of individuals vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus
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