COVID-19 Hits Rural Nursing Communities, Which Are Among Those Least Equipped to Fight It

Deaths from COVID-19 among vulnerable nursing-community residents are resurging, with the virus spreading to rural communities hit by staff shortages and other challenges. Analysis of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data by the Wall Street Journal indicates that nursing communities reported more than 1,900 resident deaths from the virus in the last week of October, and more than 32,000 confirmed and suspected cases among staff and residents. These are the highest numbers since early August, when states including Texas and Florida were seeing spikes. An increasing number of deaths are occurring in rural and small-town communities in states like Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana, indicating how the virus is spreading more widely throughout the nation. Communities in rural counties reported 18 percent of nursing-community coronavirus deaths in the week ending Nov. 1, though only 10 percent of the overall population reside there. Small-town counties witnessed 17 percent of those deaths, though communities there have just 12 percent of the total residents. Generally, U.S. long-term-care communities have been associated with more than 90,000 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began, with such fatalities tending to account for roughly 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths. A CMS spokeswoman said the agency has "taken an unprecedented number of public health actions to support nursing homes on COVID-19," including initiatives to smooth staffing crunches and permit more use of telehealth.