How to Track COVID-19 Nursing Home Cases and Deaths in Your State
What states are reporting and how to find it
David Joles/Star Tribune via Getty Images
A chaplain holding a sign in support of long-term care workers in New Hope, Minnesota.
En español | More than 43,000 long-term care residents and staff have died from COVID-19, representing over a third of the nation’s known coronavirus deaths, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation tally. While dire, this figure is an undercount, experts warn, because not all states are publicly reporting data yet. In many states more than half of coronavirus deaths are connected to long-term care facilities.
Although each state is required to report confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — and individual facilities are required to report that information to residents and their families — they are not required to share these publicly. Some states, therefore, are choosing not to.
Most states are releasing some information on nursing home cases and deaths. But “it’s truly a patchwork of inconsistent data,” says Elaine Ryan, AARP vice president for state advocacy and strategy integration. The same goes for assisted living and other types of long-term care facilities, which, unlike nursing homes, are regulated by the states.
Some states are reporting the names of facilities with cases and deaths; others are releasing just the total number across all long-term care facilities. Certain states monitor all types of long-term care facilities, but others track only nursing homes. Some report daily; others, weekly. In short, the variations are huge.
On June 4 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted its first set of federal COVID-19 nursing home data on a new website. Although it captures data from all states, 12 percent of the nation’s 15,400 Medicare and Medicaid homes have not submitted figures for the count. New data is slated for June 18; however, the CMS plans to release just weekly updates after that.
AARP is advocating for consistent daily updates. “There’s a serious problem in these facilities,” Ryan says, “and we need to know where the outbreaks are so we can target additional resources to help save lives.”
Our list tells you which states are publicly reporting, what they are reporting and how to find the information. Many of the states are updating their data more frequently than the CMS website, so it is wise to check both. Note: We are updating this list as new data become available. Delays in updates are common, so check the time stamp when looking at this information.
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- What it's sharing: Statewide count of the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's dashboard and select the “Characteristics” tab under the map.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: Total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in so-called congregate settings — which include long-term-care facilities — on a county-by-county basis, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's data dashboard and select the icon for “Congregate Setting With Positive COVID-19 Cases."
- What it's sharing: The statewide total of nursing home residents with COVID-19, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's coronavirus page and scroll down to the row in the table for “Total Nursing Home Residents.”
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals for skilled nursing facilities of confirmed COVID-19 cases, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Skilled Nursing Facilities: COVID-19” page.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals for so-called congregate living facilities of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, plus COVID-19 deaths, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the state's Outbreak data page.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals for nursing homes with confirmed COVID-19 cases and associated COVID-19 deaths, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Nursing Homes With Residents Positive for COVID-19” page.
- What it’s sharing: A list of long-term care facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases, plus the total number of deaths among residents at each facility, updated weekly on Fridays.
- How to find it: Visit the state’s news page and select the most recent Friday COVID-19 case report by the Division of Public Health.
- What it’s sharing: District- and facility-level totals of confirmed and potential COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 deaths for skilled nursing facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the District’s coronavirus data page and click “Download copy of DC COVID-19 data.” Once downloaded, open the Excel document and select the “Long-Term Care Facilities” tab.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, updated daily. Plus, for those same facilities, facility-level totals on COVID-19 deaths, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 home page and scroll down to “Review long-term care facilities with positive COVID-19 cases as of yesterday” and “Review long-term care facility deaths associated with COVID-19.” Click “See the report” for both.
- What it’s sharing: Facility-level totals for long-term care facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health’s COVID-19 Community Health page and scroll to the “Division and Office Updates” section. In the “Healthcare Facility Regulation Division” box, click on the “Long-Term Care Facility COVID-19 Report.” Download the latest PDF report by clicking on the “View Today’s Report” link.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: County- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Long-Term Care Facility Outbreaks COVID-19” page.
- What it's sharing: Statewide total of long-term care facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, plus the statewide totals of long-term care residents who have COVID-19 or who have died from COVID-19.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 data report and scroll down to the “Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities” section at the end.
- What it's sharing: County- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “COVID-19 Current Status” page and select the “LTC Dashboard” tab at the top of the map.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level total of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care and other so-called congregate facilities, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 home page and click on the teal “Long-Term Care Facilities Update” button on the right-hand side of the page.
- What it's sharing: The statewide total of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes and other adult residential facilities, updated every Monday and Wednesday.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health's “COVID-19 News” page and select the latest “Health Updates” press release. Then go to the “Nursing home and other adult residential facilities” section.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, via a daily press conference from Monday to Friday.
- How to find it: Visit the Division of Disease Surveillance's COVID-19 home page and scroll down to the “Situation in Maine” section, which features a video box underneath. Watch the COVID-19 media briefing, which usually starts at 2 p.m. ET. Recordings of past briefings are available.
- What it's sharing: County- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing, assisted living and group home facilities, updated weekly on Wednesdays.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “COVID-19 in Congregate Facility Settings” page and select the tab for “Facilities: Nursing, Assisted Living, Group Homes” at the bottom of the graph.
- What it's sharing: The statewide total of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “COVID-19 Response Reporting” page, then scroll down and click on the link titled “COVID-19 Dashboard – [DATE].” Check the report's table of contents to find the “COVID-19 Cases in Long-Term Care (LTC) Facilities” section.
- What it's sharing: County- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, updated daily from Monday to Friday.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Long-Term Care Data” page.
- What it's sharing: A list of so-called congregate care facilities with exposure to COVID-19, plus county- and state-level percentages on the share of positive long-term care/assisted living cases, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “COVID-19 Situation Update” page and visit the “Care Facilities” section for the list of congregate care facilities with exposure to COVID-19. Visit the public dashboard for the percentage breakdowns.
- What it's sharing: County-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health's COVID-19 page and scroll to the “Mississippi COVID-19 Cases to Date” section and the “Long-Term Care Facilities Cases and Deaths by Race” section.
- What it's sharing: The number of long-term care facilities in each county experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 outbreak page and scroll down to the “Cases in Congregate Living Facilities” section.
- What it’s sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: County- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, updated daily from Monday to Friday.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Facilities With Reported COVID-19 Cases” dashboard.
- What it’s sharing: A list of facilities experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, plus the total number of deaths at each, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health and Human Services’ updates page and check the daily COVID-19 report.
- What it's sharing: State-, county- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 Dashboard and click on the “Long-Term Care” tab at the top.
- What it's sharing: A list of congregate living and acute care facilities with positive COVID-19 cases, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health's “News Alerts” page and click on the most recent “Update New Mexico COVID-19 cases: Now at [Number]” report. Scroll down to the “congregate living and acute care facilities” section.
- What it's sharing: County-level totals of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and assisted care facilities, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health's “Counts of Nursing Home and ACF COVID-Related Deaths Statewide” report.
- What it's sharing: State-, county- and facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in so-called congregate living settings, updated every Tuesday and Friday.
- How to find it: Visit the “By Congregate Living” section of the state's COVID-19 Dashboard, then click on the “COVID-19 Ongoing Outbreaks in Congregate Living Settings Report."
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Coronavirus Cases” page and scroll down to the “By County – Long Term Care Facilities Cases” table.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities, updated weekly on Wednesdays. Also, county-level totals of COVID-19 deaths in those facilities, updated weekly on Wednesdays.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 Dashboard and click on the “Long-Term Care Facilities” drop-down menu at the top of the page. Choose either “Cases” or “Mortality.”
- What it's sharing: The statewide totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated weekly.
- How to find it: Download the latest “Weekly Epidemiology & Surveillance Report” from the Department of Health website.
- What it's sharing: A list of long-term facilities with confirmed and pending COVID-19 cases, updated twice weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the “COVID-19 Information for Long-Term Facilities” page and scroll down to the “Confirmed and Pending Cases of COVID-19” section. Click on the links for the latest “Facilities Reporting Cases of COVID-19 — Resident and Staff” and the “Facilities Reporting Tests Pending for COVID-19 — Residents and Staff.".
- What it’s sharing: State- and county-level totals of COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing and personal care homes, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state’s COVID-19 data page and scroll down to the “COVID-19 Cases Associated with Nursing Homes and Personal Care Homes to Date” section.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care and assisted living facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 Data Tracker and scroll down to the “Long-Term Care and Assisted Living Data” section.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated twice weekly.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “Demographic Data (COVID-19)” page and scroll down to the “Nursing Homes and Extended Care Facilities Impacted by COVID-19” section. Click on the “update on the facilities in the state that have as associated confirmed case or death from COVID-19” link.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated at an unspecified rate.
- How to find it: Visit the Department of Health's “Clusters in Long-Term Facilities” page.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities. However, it's sharing the total number of facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases, plus the total number of COVID-19 deaths in facilities, with reporters three times a week.
- What it’s sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it’s sharing: A list of long-term care facilities with active COVID-19 cases and statewide totals of positive COVID-19 cases and deaths, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state’s COVID-19 dashboard and click on the “Care Facilities” tab up the top on the right-hand side.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
- What it's sharing: State- and county-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 page, and on the “Dashboard,” click the “Outbreaks” tab up the top.
- What it’s sharing: A list of long-term care facilities reporting COVID-19 cases and the statewide total of long-term care facilities with COVID-19 cases, updated once every two weeks.
- How to find it: Visit the Aging and Long-Term Support Administration’s COVID-19 dashboard and download the latest report under the “List of Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCF) Reporting Cases of COVID-19” section. For the statewide total, scroll down to the “Number of Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCF) Reporting Cases of COVID-19” section.
- What it's sharing: Facility-level totals of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in long-term care facilities, updated daily.
- How to find it: Visit the state's COVID-19 page and click on the “Long-Term Care Facilities” tab.
- What it's sharing: Total number of facilities with confirmed COVID-19 cases, updated weekly on Wednesdays.
- How to find it: Visit the state's “COVID-19: Facility-Wide Public Health Investigations” page and scroll down to the “Wisconsin long-term care facility total” section.
- What it's sharing: Not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases or deaths in long-term care facilities.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with new information for New Hampshire, Utah, Washington and the District of Columbia. It was also revised after the CMS unveiled its new website.