Covid has receded from public attention, with few people wearing masks and levels of the virus in Eastern Massachusetts wastewater labeled as medium after last winter’s peak and a smaller summer surge. Yet it remains a threat to vulnerable elders living in nursing homes, and one Cambridge nursing home reported 30 cases over two weeks last month.
The infections were in Neville Center at Fresh Pond, the highly rated 112-bed facility with ties to city government. Weekly reports filed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disclosed eight Covid cases in the week ending Nov. 3, and 22 the next week. No cases were reported in the next two weeks, ending Nov. 24.
It was by far the largest Covid cluster reported in Cambridge’s three nursing homes for months. Before then, Neville had not reported a Covid infection since August, when there was one case. Sancta Maria Nursing Facility had six residents infected this year, most of them single cases. Cambridge Rehabilitation and Nursing Center reported seven cases over two weeks in September.
A spokesperson for Landmark Management Solutions, the Haverhill company that manages Neville Center, didn’t respond to an email with questions about the cluster and related issues such as Covid-19 vaccination levels among residents and staff.
The majority of residents and staff at nursing homes nationwide have not received the latest Covid shots, targeting recent variants of the virus. Vaccination rates plunged after the first week of October, when the CDC changed the definition of “up to date” with shots to include the latest vaccine. In Cambridge, the number of residents considered up to date at Cambridge Rehabilitation and Sancta Maria dropped to zero; it decreased to 15 from 90 at Neville.
Vaccination levels have increased at all three Cambridge nursing homes since then.
Health experts are concerned about low vaccination rates in nursing homes. As of Nov. 10 only 29.7 percent of nursing home residents across the country had received the updated Covid shot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month. The figure has since risen to 34.7 percent. One of the three Cambridge centers – Neville Center – is lower, at 31 percent.
“Addressing low coverage with Covid-19, influenza and RSV vaccines is a priority to protect residents who are susceptible to severe outcomes associated with respiratory illnesses,” the Centers said.
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