New COVID-19 nursing home deaths in Connecticut drop slightly, following statewide trend

The number of new COVID-19 associated deaths at nursing homes dropped slightly this week, following a broader statewide trends of declining deaths and hospitalizations as Connecticut slowly begins to relax some of its pandemic restrictions and reopen businesses.

The death toll among the state’s older population is still growing, however, with 263 new deaths at nursing homes over the past week, compared to exactly 300 new nursing home deaths in the week before, according to state data released Friday afternoon.

The staggering 2,190 total confirmed and probable COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes through Wednesday, the most recent data available, represents about 62% of the 3,529 deaths reported statewide as of that date. As of Friday, the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Connecticut reached 3,637.

There also have been 306 deaths so far in 79 Connecticut assisted-living facilities, including 30 new deaths in such facilities since last week, when the state first began releasing assisted-living facility data. Those deaths are counted separately from nursing homes.

The new data show the coronavirus continues to saturate the facilities where thousands of the most vulnerable citizens live in communal settings that make social distancing difficult, if not impossible, and where state officials have struggled to stem the spread.

Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center in East Hartford, one of the largest nursing homes in the state, still has registered the most deaths with 57 total and remains the only nursing home with more than 50 deaths.

Abbott Terrace in Waterbury and Kimberly Hall North in Windsor each have recorded 43 total deaths at their facilities, although Kimberly Hall North did not record any new deaths over the past week, the data show. No other facilities have recorded more than 40 deaths, but another 10 now report 30 or more deaths.

The state also has ramped up testing at these facilities with plans to test every nursing home patient for COVID-19 by the end of the month and to begin regularly testing workers at those facilities.

That increase in testing has identified more than 1,800 cases in the past two weeks alone with positive infections now discovered at 165 of the state’s 215 nursing homes.

More than half of residents at 40 of those homes have tested positive for the virus and infections are much higher at some facilities, the data show. As many as 80% of residents have tested positive at Touchpoints at Farmington and Beacon Brook Health Center in Naugutuck and 75% have tested positive at Silver Springs Care Center in Meriden.

The number of homes with more than 100 cases of COVID-19 also doubled this week to 10 facilities as testing illustrates how far the virus has spread.

Assisted-living facilities across Connecticut have fared better and many reported no new deaths over the past week, including those hit the hardest so far.

Ridgefield Crossings still the most deaths among assisted-living facilities with 26 total. Spring Village in Stratford has recorded 14 deaths and another 13 residents have died at The Village at Buckland Court in South Windsor, but none of those three facilities any new deaths this past week.

As the coronavirus continues to spread through nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, some of the recovery centers set up specifically for those patients are going largely unused while nursing homes choose to instead treat them on site, officials said this week.

Athena Health Care owner Lawrence Santilli told the state this week that the four designated centers it operates are underutilized — with only 32% of beds occupied as of Monday — and should be closed unless changes are made.

The state Department of Public Health has agreed to expand what patients can be voluntarily transferred to such centers, which had previously been limited only to patients leaving hospitals, officials said.

Every nursing home has now been inspected and this week another 20 received deficiency findings related to infection control during the pandemic, according to new records released by DPH on Wednesday. A total of 41 nursing homes statewide have been cited by the teams of Connecticut National Guard and federal inspectors that made unannounced, in-person visits to each home over the past several weeks.

Four of those findings related to grouping COVID-19 patients those not infected with the virus together, one of the most important protocols for preventing the spread of the coronavirus through packed facilities, the records indicated.

Two deficiency findings were for improper notification inside the facility and to families. Three findings were based on improper physical distancing between residents, four for various other infection control problem and 11 findings related to improper use or cleaning of personal protective equipment. By law, the cited homes must submit corrective action plans to DPH and are allowed to dispute the findings.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com. Dave Altimari can be reached at daltimari@courant.com.