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The outbreak at the Good Samaritan Society-Deuel County senior care facility in Clear Lake, South Dakota reflects an increase in vaccine advances in nursing homes across the country: vaccinated seniors treat regularly with unvaccinated staff, visitors and community residents, face the rise of the more dangerous delta variant, and are less protected by vaccines than previously thought.
It is not yet clear what caused the outbreak in Clear Lake. But such outbreaks underscore the importance for nursing home staff and surrounding communities to be vaccinated more widely against COVID-19, researchers say. It is simply not enough to immunize vulnerable elderly people if they are always surrounded by people who are not.
It’s a problem in South Dakota, which struggles to meet immunization goals, and particularly in Deuel County, where immunization rates are significantly lower than national and national averages, according to the Centers for Disease. Control and Prevention.
The Clear Lake facility, with its 30 or so fully vaccinated residents, was somewhat of an island in a county where only 36% of people 12 and older were vaccinated. But no senior care facility is truly an island. They are places of work. And homes where family and friends come to visit.
Yet the 40-bed facility had weathered the pandemic without losing a single resident to COVID-19, according to weekly reports submitted to federal health authorities.
Then, in the last two weeks, the virus finally made its appearance.
The epidemic
Seven out of 30 residents were sick with COVID-19 and two sick with the virus had died on Thursday, July 29, according to Rochelle Rindels, vice president of nursing and clinical services at the Good Samaritan Society, which owns and operates the Clear Lake facility. . .
After discovering COVID-19 among the residents, the Good Samaritan quarantined each resident in a room. The Good Samaritan Society sent a regional head nurse to lead the response, added staff members to isolate nursing staff from residents who had tested positive for the virus, and re-tested the fit for protective gear. individual, said Rindels.
The two deceased residents had underlying and contributing medical conditions, and the vaccine should be credited with reducing the severity of the disease in the remaining residents who tested positive, she said.
“Of the seven that we currently have in-house, they really have mild to no symptoms,” Rindels said.
It is probably impossible to prove how COVID-19 was presented to the residents of Clear Lake. But it is clear that they are surrounded by people not as well vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to the CMS report for the week ending July 18, only 61% of staff are fully immunized. That’s below the industry target of 75%. But it matches the state’s average senior care facility staff, is slightly better than the national average, and much better than the surrounding community, according to federal data.
Deuel County has not flocked to be vaccinated. As of Friday, July 30, only about 30% of the county’s 4,300 residents were vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC. Only 12 people in the county are currently infected with the virus, according to the state’s COVID-19 data dashboard.
But in the past two weeks alone, five workers at the Clear Lake facility have tested positive for COVID-19, Rindels said. “None of the staff worked while he was sick,” she added.
Safeguards are in place. In accordance with the policy of the Good Samaritan Society, staff are tested twice a week for the virus and immediately for symptoms. The establishment has also tightened its touring policy, encouraging virtual tours and virtual tours, and only allowing inside tours for compassionate reasons.
Staff at the facility will be fully immunized by November 1. The Good Samaritan Society, part of Sanford Health, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit elderly care providers, with more than 200 locations in 24 States.
On July 23, Sanford Health said it was requiring all employees to be vaccinated by November 1 as a condition of employment. This includes employees of the Good Samaritan Society.
Vaccine efficacy a concern
There is growing evidence that vaccinations, while powerful, are not a quick fix against COVID-19 for the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
A study from Oregon Health & Science University, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that older people appear to have fewer antibodies to fight COVID-19 after being vaccinated, compared to older people. other younger people. But vaccines are still effective enough to prevent infections and serious illnesses in most people of all ages.
“Our older populations are potentially more susceptible to variants even if they are vaccinated,” said lead author of the study, Fikadu Tafesse, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Oregon Health & Science University. “The good news is that our vaccines are really powerful.
The study results mirrored case studies outlined in a recently leaked CDC presentation on the need to change messages about the state of the pandemic, amid the burgeoning delta variant.
While the CDC estimates that more than 80% of the country’s new unvaccinated cases are the delta variant, it’s hard to say how prevalent the variant is in South Dakota.
So far, only 13 cases of the delta variant have been detected during state spot checks, none in Deuel County, according to the state health ministry. But state health officials have warned that additional positive cases of variants detected via limited testing indicate a wider spread of this variant.
The South Dakota Public Health Laboratory is currently testing positive samples from residents of the Clear Lake facility to see if they are the most transmissible and dangerous delta variant of COVID-19, said Rindels of the Good Samaritan Society.
The state Department of Health, which oversees the public health lab, did not immediately respond to questions for this story.
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