COVID-19 reinfections are occurring in nursing homes, study finds

Residents in long-term care facilities who were infected with the BA.1 or BA.2 Omicron variant in 2022 were more likely to get COVID-19 again, compared with people in the facilities who never tested positive for the virus, according to research. The unexpected finding refuted the common belief that getting COVID-19 provides strong protection against subsequent infection. It also underscores the need for everyone, but especially elder adults in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, to remain up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, according to researchers. The study, published in August 2023 in eClinical Medicine, included 318 randomly selected people with four monovalent mRNA vaccinations from 750 residents from a range of Canadian long-term care facilities. (Medscape article, 8/24/23)