Disabled homes especially in NY have been hard hit by coronavirus-SARS-COV-2: NYT. The death rate in those who test positive with COVID has been over ten percent.

image (an old engraving) courtesy of pixabay.com

An article in last night’s NYT reveals that the test positive rate for the disabled living in group homes was five times that in the general population, and the death rate was also five times as high.  Disabled people in NY mostly live in group homes rather than at home with relatives, although many are still cared for by family and friends.  The article details the difficulties of social distancing, especially with many psychological care workers unable to go to the homes as usual.  It also indicates that 10% of those who test positive are dying, similar to the rates of death in countries like Italy where most of the population is older (and consequently sicker).

Other reports from veteran’s homes indicate that patients with COVID were kept with other patients in rooms with four occupants until their tests came back positive, too late to remove them from their rooms and isolate them.  This isolation and re-shuffling resulted in infections being passed on to other residents with ruthless efficiency.  One veteran’s home has had 25 deaths in the course of a few days over late March.  Some rooms had six occupants and people were kept in the dining hall.  Now there have been so many deaths that the original rates of four to a room have been re-established.

Reports from Japan show a similar picture: one group home in Chiba had 86 positive test results.  This is dramatically worse than in NY because Japan as a whole only had 2,000 positive tests at the time (over a week ago).