One year after the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 in Spain, on March 2, 2021, the Government began to periodically publish official data of deaths of older people living in nursing homes, the places where the disease had the greatest impact.
Total, more than 33,300 people who lived in these centers have died because of the coronavirus. In the last week, 44 deaths have been recorded, according to information collected up to June 12, 2022 by IMSERSO, the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda, the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES) of the Ministry of Health and the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
From March 14, 2020, Resident deaths with confirmed COVID-19 are more than 22,800. To them are added 10,492 deaths of people with symptoms compatible with the coronavirus -but without corroborating evidence- and who lived in these centers.
As for infections, in nursing homes they have been diagnosed by PCR or another approved diagnostic test more than 2,600 new cases in the last week, and there are already more than 243,000 infections so far in the pandemic.
In the spring of 2020, 20,000 people died
The organizations warn that these data are constantly updated and refined. All in all, they show the magnitude of the impact that COVID had on nursing homes, only really mitigated by the effect of vaccines from 2021. Throughout that year, 5,079 deaths were recorded in these centers.
However, in the worst of the first wave, between March and June 2020, almost 10,000 people died, more than in the rest of 2020. In that period we must add the 10,492 deaths of residents without a diagnostic test, so two of every three deaths of the elderly in residences took place in just three months.
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Deaths in nursing homes by autonomous communities
By autonomous communities and in absolute values, Madrid is the region where the most elderly have died from coronavirusfollowed by Catalonia, Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha.
The following visualization shows the percentage that deaths in these centers of each community represent over the total number of deaths during the pandemic, in such a way that Castilla y León and Extremadura lead the rate, with more than 50%.
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The official balance began in the second year of the pandemic
After a year of pandemic and with nursing homes as the focus most affected by the coronavirus, we had to wait for March 2021 for the Government to present aggregated and systematized information of the evolution of COVID-19 in residences.
Despite the claim for this information and the promises of the Ministry of Health that these data would be reported, the first official estimate did not arrive until November 2020when an IMSERSO draft encrypted in 20,268 those who died in the first wave, from March to June 29 of that yearbetween cases confirmed by diagnostic test and deaths “with symptoms compatible” with COVID-19.
As this information was not collected by any official source, the daily monitoring of the media depended solely on the figures provided by the autonomous communities, which did not present their data homogeneously in those months. In that sense, from April 2020 to March 3, 2021, DataRTVE kept a count of deaths in residences and other institutionalized health centers. According to the last update of this balance, 31,879 people would have died.
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Vaccination, key to stopping the advance of the waves
Nursing homes for the elderly, people with disabilities and other institutionalized groups were the first objective of the vaccination plan that started in Spain on December 27, 2020. The Ministry of Health offered information on the immunization of these groups for a time, but stopped doing so on June 2, 2021. Until then, 93.3% had completed the regimen and 99.7% had received at least one dose.
Although vaccination reduces the symptoms of coronavirus, they continue to affect older people especially. During the fifth and sixth waveseven with the population of residences with the complete guideline and with the booster dose, the cases grewalthough at a lower rate than during the spring of 2020.
The same thing happened with the deaths, which were not as high as in previous months. According to a report of Health and the Carlos III Health Institute, mass vaccination prevented a minimum of 17,000 cases of COVID-19 and 3,500 deaths in the third quarter of 2021.
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