Coronavirus Watch: At nursing homes, slow test results are 'useless'

More nursing homes are waiting longer for COVID-19 test results, according to federal data, making the fight against record numbers of omicron cases even harder.

A Kaiser Health News analysis of data found that 25% of nursing homes that sent tests to a lab waited on average three or more days for results as of Jan. 16. In early December, that number was 12%.

Facing a slow turnaround for lab-based PCR tests alongside a continued shortage of at-home rapid tests, protecting the vulnerable senior population that was hard-hit early on in the pandemic has strained facilities and workers.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:

• The director of the WHO's Europe office said Thursday that coronavirus deaths are starting to plateau and the continent faces a “plausible endgame” to the pandemic.
• Travel industry trade groups are pushing federal officials to drop the pre-departure coronavirus testing requirement for vaccinated travelers flying into the United States.
• Fully vaccinated Americans are 14 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than those who haven’t gotten the shots, and boosted Americans are 97 times less likely, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.
• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti urged fans headed to the Super Bowl to strictly adhere to pandemic safety protocols that include staying masked except while eating or drinking.

Did you lose a loved one in a nursing home to COVID-19? Paste BN is honoring the lives of the more than 140,000 nursing home residents who have died from the disease. If your loved one is among them, we invite you to commemorate their lives on our website. In the coming weeks, this memory wall will become part of a larger project related to nursing homes during the pandemic.

See our COVID-19 resource guide here. See total reported cases and deaths here. On vaccinations: About 75% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 64% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

– Cady Stanton, Paste BN digital editor fellow, @cady_stanton