A significant majority of deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland occurred in Long Term Residential Care homes, a new study has found – and this country had one of the highest concentrations of deaths from the virus in such settings globally.
The study, published in The Journal of Long-Term Care, found that 66% of Covid deaths in Ireland occurred in care homes – second only to Australia where 75% of such deaths occurred in LTRCs.
In this country, researchers said, over 8,500 Covid-19 cases were confirmed among residents of care homes – and more than 2,100 deaths occurred in that setting.
“Covid-19 had a significant impact on LTRC in Ireland with very high rates of cases and deaths,” the researchers found.
“In many countries, Covid-19 deaths in LTRC residents accounted for more than half of all such deaths,” they noted. “Death rates among LTRC residents were much higher than for similarly aged people living in the community.”
“Ireland has had one of the highest concentrations of Covid-19 deaths in LTRC residents. Throughout the first waves of the pandemic, 66% of all Covid-19 deaths were related to outbreaks in LTRC,” they noted.
Their analysis of the data showed that 65% of all care homes in Ireland had at least one outbreak of Covid-19 in Waves 1–3 of the pandemic.
“Among the 545 separate outbreaks reported, there were 8,502 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 2,107 Covid-19 deaths among LTRC residents,” they showed.
“In total, 24.7% of residents who were confirmed to have Covid-19 died of the disease.”
While larger homes (60+beds) were significantly more likely to have a Covid-19 outbreak than smaller ones (40+ beds), the study found no difference between public and private homes.
“Larger homes (60+ beds) were 3.5 times more likely to have a Covid-19 outbreak compared to smaller homes (<40 beds),” it reported.
“No difference in the probability of an outbreak was observed between public and private LTRC homes.”
LTRC homes located in counties with the highest community rates of Covid-19 were seven times more likely to have an outbreak compared to LTRC homes located in counties with the lowest rates.
The study was based on all 572 LTRC homes registered with HIQA as designated centres for older people, who consistently provided care between March 2020 and March 2021.
Limitations of the Study
Researchers noted that “there is no centralised dataset in Ireland that collects information on morbidity, dementia, or cognitive status of residents.”
“Therefore, we were unable to examine the impact resident-level characteristics had on Covid-19 outcomes,” they wrote.
Amongst their conclusions were that the association between Covid-19 rates in the community and outbreaks in LTRC settings points to the need to keep community levels of Covid-19 low in order to protect care home residents.
They also said that “while various measures implemented in Ireland and elsewhere (including lockdowns, the provision of PPE, etc.), in particular the implementation of the vaccination programme, reduced the impact of the pandemic both within and outside of LTRC homes, outbreaks continue to impact the LTRC sector.”