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coronavirus have declined overall, nursing homes in the U.S. have persisted as one of the deadliest environments in the pandemic, according to a new ABC News analysis of the latest public health data.” data-reactid=”17″ type=”text”>Even as death rates from the novel coronavirus have declined overall, nursing homes in the U.S. have persisted as one of the deadliest environments in the pandemic, according to a new ABC News analysis of the latest public health data.

“Nursing home residents remain at risk,” said Dr. Jay Bhatt, an internist in Chicago and ABC News contributor, citing seniors’ unique vulnerabilities to COVID-19 and a “broken and patchwork system of care delivery.”

closing doors to loved ones, eliminating group activities and implementing strict protocols to isolate themselves.” data-reactid=”19″ type=”text”>Since March, long-term care facilities across the nation have been ravaged by the coronavirus and have accounted for roughly 40% of virus-related deaths, data shows. Nursing home residents have taken steps to try and halt the spread by closing doors to loved ones, eliminating group activities and implementing strict protocols to isolate themselves.

COVID Tracking Project, in April there were nearly 54,000 deaths while in July, there were 25,295 deaths.” data-reactid=”20″ type=”text”>Nationally, coronavirus infections have not been leading to deaths as frequently as they did earlier in the outbreak, according to public health data. While July had by far the most cases, the deadliest month of the outbreak was in April. According to the COVID Tracking Project, in April there were nearly 54,000 deaths while in July, there were 25,295 deaths.

MORE: In first federal count, over 25,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes” data-reactid=”21″ type=”text”>MORE: In first federal count, over 25,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes

ABC News conducted an analysis of state-by-state reporting of positive cases and deaths in America’s nursing homes. And more than six months into the effort to fight the outbreak, those numbers show the virus continues to find pathways into nursing homes, accounting for at least 63,000 of the nation’s more than 162,000 total coronavirus deaths.

PHOTO: An EMS team picks up a suspected Covid-19 patient. (David Degner/Getty Images)

virus enters a nursing home, the percentage of positive cases that will lead to death has declined only slightly, from 21% to 18%. And in some states where the virus has slowed among the broader public, the cases have continued to climb in nursing homes, data from state health departments show.” data-reactid=”34″ type=”text”>Once the virus enters a nursing home, the percentage of positive cases that will lead to death has declined only slightly, from 21% to 18%. And in some states where the virus has slowed among the broader public, the cases have continued to climb in nursing homes, data from state health departments show.

In New Hampshire, for instance, where nursing homes accounted for 57% of deaths back in late May, they now account for 82% of total deaths. Similarly in Kentucky, where nursing home fatalities accounted for 56% of deaths in late May, they now make up 63% of those who succumbed to the disease. In Indiana and Ohio, where the percentage neared 50% back in May, the numbers have crept up to 54% of total deaths in August.

MORE: Experts fear for elderly amid virus surge in state with most nursing homes” data-reactid=”36″ type=”text”>MORE: Experts fear for elderly amid virus surge in state with most nursing homes

Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island all continue to show significant death tolls in nursing homes, even as the overall number of fatalities has declined — with the facilities accounting for more than 60% of each state’s total number of deadly cases.

Bhatt said younger patients are surviving better as health care facilities are getting smarter about how they care for people stricken by the virus. But those advances have not extended as easily in nursing homes because, he added, of the vulnerabilities that make older adults especially susceptible targets – such as weakened immune systems and other health complications.

As the number of fatalities in nursing homes continues to remain high, multiple efforts are underway to protect nursing home residents. In mid-July, the federal government announced it would send rapid testing kits for COVID-19 to all skilled nursing facilities in the country. So far, tests have been delivered to 1,500 locations, federal officials told ABC News.

PHOTO: Mend Urgent Care workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) perform drive-up COVID-19 testing at Central City Value High School on July 31, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images, FILE)

But the new testing initiative has raised concerns among advocates and nursing homes about the accuracy and cost of the tests.

“To me, the accuracy is just so essential,” said Richard Mollot, the executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, an organization that advocates for nursing home residents. “If you don’t have an accurate test then we’re kind of wasting people’s time and resources.”

LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit providers of aging services that includes many nursing homes, recently sent a letter to Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, which pointed out that while antigen testing is useful for rapid results, the tests have a 20% false-negative result. LeadingAge also estimated that weekly costs for facilities with 100 employees would be nearly $20,000. They did not provide underlying figures.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), each nursing home in the U.S. will receive one diagnostic test instrument and associated antigen tests. Following initial distribution, nursing homes will be able to purchase additional tests directly from the manufacturer.” data-reactid=”58″ type=”text”>According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), each nursing home in the U.S. will receive one diagnostic test instrument and associated antigen tests. Following initial distribution, nursing homes will be able to purchase additional tests directly from the manufacturer.

MORE: Advocates demand stronger federal action as nursing homes engulfed by pandemic” data-reactid=”59″ type=”text”>MORE: Advocates demand stronger federal action as nursing homes engulfed by pandemic

“When our nursing home receives the rapid test kits, we’re responsible for paying for the tests,” said Matthew Solomon, a spokesperson for Aviva, a nursing home in Florida. “Right now normal COVID-19 tests are costing us about $100 per test. And we have 300 residents so how are we going to pay for that?”

ran out of federal stimulus aid on July 31.” data-reactid=”61″ type=”text”>Solomon said his nursing home had its first positive coronavirus case about two weeks ago and ran out of federal stimulus aid on July 31.

The $2 trillion coronavirus relief packaged passed by Congress in March created mechanisms by which nursing homes could receive federal aid to help them combat the virus and keep employees on the payroll. In late July, HHS expanded the application window for some Medicaid and Medicare-funded facilities to apply for additional aid, but Solomon said his facility is no longer receiving federal support.

Congress, after weeks of debate, has so far failed to pass additional coronavirus relief legislation after weeks of partisan in-fighting. Failure to pass additional legislation means funding for many programs, including those providing support to nursing facilities, will soon dry up entirely. In a Facebook Live event with NBC last week, Giroir acknowledged the tests being distributed to nursing homes are not as accurate as other tests but return results faster, which he said is a key tool to help quickly identify hot spots.

“It is much better to have a much less sensitive test that you get back within 15 minutes than a perfectly sensitive test you get back in three days,” Giroir said.

Gail Bruno, a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home in South Florida that has seen a recent increase in coronavirus cases, says long-term care facilities did not receive access to testing or vital protective equipment fast enough.

MORE: As nation tries to exhale, coronavirus still carrying infection, death into nursing homes, data show” data-reactid=”66″ type=”text”>MORE: As nation tries to exhale, coronavirus still carrying infection, death into nursing homes, data show

“I’m tired, it’s been months,” Bruno said. “We have 23 residents who are positive right now and it is very, very scary.”

PHOTO: A healthcare worker in a protective suits helps an elderly person to get off an ambulance on April 4, 2020. (Go Nakamura/Reuters)

In late July, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would distribute $5 billion to nursing homes through the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund for Nursing Homes.” data-reactid=”79″ type=”text”>In late July, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would distribute $5 billion to nursing homes through the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund for Nursing Homes.

On Friday, the agency announced its plans to allocate these funds through an initial $2.5 billion distributed to nursing homes in mid-August to support increased testing, staffing, PPE needs, and COVID-19 isolation facilities. This will be followed by additional performance-based distributions throughout the fall that “will consider the prevalence of the virus in the nursing home’s local geography, and will be based on the nursing home’s ability within this context to minimize COVID spread and COVID-related fatalities among its residents,” according to HHS.

MORE: Inside nursing homes, coronavirus brings isolation and 7,300 deaths; Outside, families yearn for news” data-reactid=”81″ type=”text”>MORE: Inside nursing homes, coronavirus brings isolation and 7,300 deaths; Outside, families yearn for news

For nursing home advocates like Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, the latest figures showing the persistence of the virus in nursing homes serve as a reminder of the challenges the facilities will continue to face.

“Nursing facilities do not have enough staff, tests, and personal protective equipment,” Edelman said, adding that as a result, they “remain dangerous places, for residents and workers alike.”

As coronavirus fatalities decline nationwide, viral deaths persist in America’s nursing homes, data shows originally appeared on abcnews.go.com” data-reactid=”85″ type=”text”>As coronavirus fatalities decline nationwide, viral deaths persist in America’s nursing homes, data shows originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Chicago pushes back against presidential intervention despite deaths

Lori Lightfoot

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Jonathan Daniel / Staff / Getty Images

The two deadly weekends come just after President Donald Trump sent a letter to Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker criticizing their leadership on the issue.

“Your lack of leadership on this important issue continues to fail the people you have sworn to protect,” Trump said in the letter, written in response to a Chicago Sun-Times article detailing May 31 as Chicago’s deadliest day in 60 years.

“Unfortunately, you continue to put your own political interests ahead of the lives, safety, and fortunes of your own citizens,” Trump said. “The people of Chicago deserve better.”

Lightfoot rebuked the president in a press conference, NBC reported, attacking Trump on his policies ranging from his handling of the pandemic to the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“You have utterly failed to lead in this crisis of a lifetime,” Lightfoot said, calling his letter to the Illinois leaders “transparently political.”

Lightfoot also highlighted Trump’s attacks on female Democratic mayors, several of whom have been openly critical of the president in recent weeks over his response to Black Lives Matter protests, and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The thing you need to remember Mr. President, we are all tough women,” Lightfoot said. “We’re not going to take anything from anybody, even if his name begins with Mr. President.”

A new study has found that throughout metropolitan areas in the United States, Black people are more likely to die in an encounter with the police than white people.

police officer making an arrest — On average, Black people are 3.23 times more likely than white people to die from interacting with the police.

In the United States, there is a long history of police brutality, most of which has been aimed at Black people.

The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Marquez Arbery — to name but a few Black victims of racialized police brutality in 2020 — have spurred demands for justice and change throughout the country.

An increasing number of studies analyzing police data are providing evidence for the need to scrutinize and address violence and bias in the U.S. police force.

Most recently, an analysis from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, MA, shows that throughout urban areas in the U.S., Black people are significantly more likely than white people to be killed in encounters with the police.

The researchers behind this analysis — Gabriel Schwartz and Jaquelyn Jahn, both Ph.D. candidates — have published their findings in PLOS One.

The researchers analyzed data from 5,494 cases of police-related fatalities that occurred between 2013 and 2017 in the U.S. They accessed these data through Fatal Encounters, an independent database endorsed by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Schwartz and Jahn estimated the rates of fatalities involving police encounters in every metropolitan statistical area in the country. These are urban areas with at least 50,000 inhabitants each.

The researchers’ final analysis excluded 1,670 cases filed as suicides or accidents, “including drug overdoses and other medical emergencies, drowning, or falling from a height,” and deaths caused by vehicle collisions.

Moreover, the part of the analysis that focused on racial and ethnic disparities excluded 547 cases that lacked information about race and ethnicity.

The investigators did not estimate fatality rates for Native Americans, people from the Middle East, or Asian or Pacific Islanders, as the Fatal Encounters database registered a low total number of deaths for people in these demographics.

According to the final analysis, there were significant variations among police-related fatalities across metropolitan statistical areas.

The rate of fatal encounters with police was nine times higher in the area with most fatalities, which was Anniston-Oxford-Jacksonville, AL, than in that with the fewest fatalities, which was Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY.

In general, there were more deaths from encounters with police in the West and South of the U.S. than in the northern Midwest and Northeast regions.

Another clear disparity related to race. The researchers estimated that on average, Black people were 3.23 times more likely to die at the hands of the police than white people — and this trend held true throughout every metropolitan statistical area.

The estimates varied from area to area, but Black people consistently had a higher risk of death during a police encounter than their white peers throughout the country.

In the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell area, for example, the rate of fatalities among Black people was 1.81 times higher than that among white people, while in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin area, the rate was 6.51 times higher.

The researchers acknowledge that their study faced some limitations, namely that the Fatal Encounters database, while comprehensive, likely does not account for all fatalities, as some go unreported.

Also, more recent data were not available, as they were still undergoing a fact-checking process.

The authors also note the possibility of racial and ethnic misclassifications and erroneously classified causes of death in the reports.

Finally, they point out that the Fatal Encounters database does not detail the circumstances in which each death occurred; it remains unclear whether death may have been avoided through police noninvolvement.

While the researchers’ paper is descriptive and does not speculate about the causes of the disparities, the authors do emphasize the need to address the trends.

“People’s risk of fatal police violence varies hugely from one metro area to another,” they observe, noting that “Some metro [area]s have death rates nine times those of other cities, which points to how preventable these deaths are and why so many people are protesting police violence across the country.”

Specifically, they point out that:

“Nationally, Black people are at much higher risk of being killed by the police, but in some places, the difference is truly enormous: Black Chicagoans are more than 650% more likely to be killed than white Chicagoans.”

Schwartz and Jahn conclude their paper by emphasizing: “Our analysis suggests specific [areas] where […] discussions [on the prevention of fatal police encounters] between affected communities, advocates, law enforcement, and politicians are especially urgent; places where rates of fatal police violence are relatively low, and thus where lessons may be learned; as well as areas where attention to the racial/ethnic distribution of fatal police violence is desperately needed.”