Detroit, Michigan, June 17, 2020—Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is running COVID-19 health education and infection prevention trainings in Michigan nursing homes to help prevent the spread of the virus, the international medical humanitarian organization announced Wednesday.
On Monday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released new COVID-19 data that recorded 66,000 confirmed cases and over 6,000 deaths. Nursing home residents accounted for 7,100 of the cases and 2,000 deaths. Additionally, more than 3,100 staff working in long-term care facilities have fallen ill from COVID-19. With such a heavy toll on the residents and the essential workers at these facilities, MSF has also begun working in coordination with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Detroit Health Department to quickly identify which nursing home facilities are in need of infection control measures.
“Much of the early focus during this outbreak has been on protecting hospitals from COVID-19, but what we see is that the virus has proven to be especially deadly for elderly people in nursing homes,” said Heather Pagano, emergency coordinator for MSF in Michigan. “We are providing hands-on, in-person training and guidance to staff to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these facilities. Feedback from the trainings has been especially positive from the non-medical staff–cleaning and kitchen workers–who are less likely to have previous training about the virus, how it spreads, and how to best protect themselves and others.”
As the novel coronavirus has rapidly spread across the world, older people have suffered the highest rates of death as a result of the pandemic. Older adults living in long-term care facilities, or nursing homes, are at an even more heightened risk of infection and complications due to shared living spaces and underlying medical conditions. The Kaiser Family Foundation has reported the average percentage of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities in states across the US at about 45 percent. More than 217,000 residents in nursing homes have contracted COVID-19, and 43,000 have died.
“The emotional toll on the workforce has been immense,” said Pagano. “Every day, they face the full weight of working and caring for residents in an epidemic that doesn’t seem to have an end. Some express their grief at having lost many residents –who they had long cared for– in a short period of time. They also experience heightened stress and fear of bringing the virus home and infecting their family members.”
