In this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers review COVID-19 activity and vaccination in US nursing homes from October 2023 through February 2024 and find up to 26% of nursing homes reported at least one case of COVID-19 during each week of the study period.

The study was based on information gathered as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network.

Weekly rates of incident SARS-CoV-2 infection ranged from 61.4 per 10,000 nursing home residents during the week ending February 11, 2024, to 133.8 per 10,000 during the week ending December 3, 2023. The cumulative weekly SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was highest in the Midwest region (130.1 per 10,000 residents) and lowest in the South (93.1 per 10,000).

The same geographic pattern was seen among COVID hospitalizations: The cumulative weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rate was 5.8 per 10,000 residents and was highest in the Midwest (6.7 per 10,000) and lowest in the South (5.0 per 10,000), the authors said.