AAt the peak of the second corona wave in Germany in 2021, according to a survey by Barmer Krankenkasse, there was a close connection between the number of sick people in nursing homes and the vaccination rate in the relevant federal states. This emerges from the care report 2022 of the health insurance company.
There were also large regional differences in the number of sick people in homes: In December 2021, the smallest proportion of residents in nursing homes in Bremen was 0.57 percent sick; in Saxony, on the other hand, this proportion was 10.3 percent; that was the highest value in Germany, reports Barmer. Schleswig-Holstein was second with 1.27 percent, Thuringia with 9.73 percent in penultimate place. Nationwide, the value was 4.26 percent. In the total population, the proportion of patients at this time was 2.64 percent.
“Countries with a lower acceptance of the corona measures also had higher proportions of Covid in the population,” write the authors of the report. Saxony and Thuringia still have particularly low vaccination rates; 50.5 or 54 percent of the population there are currently immunized with a booster vaccination. In Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein, the rate is 67.2 and 70.7 percent, respectively. In Bavaria, which in December 2021 was in third place with 6.25 percent of the sick in nursing homes, the triple vaccination rate is currently 59.4 percent.
Almost every second corona death lived in a nursing home
According to the Barmer report, almost every second corona death in Germany had previously lived in a care facility. Based on the years 2020 and 2021, the total cumulative proportion of those who died with Covid-19 in nursing homes is 45 percent. “For the first and second wave, it is shown that the largest proportion of the deceased comes from the nursing home. In April 2020, 2,415 of the 3,970 recorded deaths with Covid-19 (61 percent) came from nursing homes. In December 2020, 11,941 of 21,677 (55 percent) died. In the third and fourth wave, the proportion fell well below 50 percent,” says the Barmer care report. Despite a similar number of people in need of care in outpatient care, the number of people who died with Covid-19 was lower there, the report continues.
The pandemic has also left its mark on nursing home staff. During the pandemic, the proportion of sick people was six times higher among nursing home staff and twice as high among home care staff than in the general population. Employees in care facilities therefore had a significantly increased risk of infection, according to the care report. 69.5 percent of employees said that they were often or always physically exhausted; before the pandemic it was 43.2 percent. 81.2 percent of the more than 1,000 nurses surveyed said that professional requirements had increased during the pandemic. In addition, 43.2 percent of those surveyed had considered quitting their job, according to the report. Before the pandemic it was 19.8 percent.
The analysis is based on the data of around nine million people insured by Barmer Krankenkasse in Germany. The number of insured persons was extrapolated to the total population as of December of the corresponding year.