Tracking COVID
Since the Department of Health (DOH) warned of an increase in COVID-19 cases last month, COVID-19 hospital admissions and new infections in residential care settings have continued to increase. The overall hospitalization and new infection figures remain modest, although they represent a fairly high growth rate given the low starting point. DOH posts hospitalization data, along with several other indicators helpful in monitoring the prevalence of COVID-19, on its COVID-19 Data page here, while good data for the NYC area is here. (If you encounter difficulty accessing the visuals on the State's site, please try an alternative browser).
In nursing homes and assisted living facilities (ALFs)/adult care facilities (ACFs), there were about 550 residents newly diagnosed with COVID-19 during the week ending Aug. 15th (up from 350 new diagnoses in the prior week) and 374 staff diagnosed (up from 222 in the prior week). Approximately 18 percent of nursing homes and ALFs/ACFs reported at least one new resident or staff infection in the week ending Aug. 15th. The Central NY region had the highest rate of impacted facilities, with 22 percent reporting new infections. DOH updates the counts of new infections based on facility daily Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) submissions on Wednesdays and posts weekly figures here.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841