Statewide Iowa — The number on the state website for COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities dropped to zero Thursday and remained at zero Friday.
Lori Ristau, with the Iowa Health Care Association, says nearly all of the state’s 430 nursing homes have experienced an outbreak at some point.
(As above) “We got to the peak of the virus about November, December, and at that time, we had 167 facilities battling the virus in their buildings. So getting to zero today is tremendous, tremendous progress.”
She says the virus took a heavy toll on these residents.
(As above) “Even though long-term care residents account for less than one percent of the population of the state, when it came to COVID, they accounted for nearly half of the deaths from the virus.”
State data shows two-thousand-225 long-term care residents have died from COVID-19. There were other unmeasurable issues as well as family and friends could not visit residents of the homes or be with them when they died for many months. Long-term residents and staff were among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Ristau says all facilities are expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of this month.
