Nursing homes and other elder care providers are grappling with the current shortage of rapid COVID-19 tests, with reports emerging of low supplies as the administration mounts a massive effort to boost the country’s manufacturing capacity.
The testing shortage is compounded by a worsening staffing crisis. The industry lost hundreds of thousands of workers since the beginning of the pandemic, and the surge in cases from the omicron variant is forcing more staffers to call out of work.
The issue is raising questions about care for seniors nationwide and whether the administration’s effort to ship 1 billion tests directly to households is further undercutting supplies for providers, which are already competing with a surge in demand from the general public. Nursing home residents are particularly at high risk from the virus, accounting for around 142,700 of the roughly 860,000 total U.S. COVID-19 deaths — 17 percent, despite making up less than 1 percent of the population.
