Nursing Home Compare has detailed information about every Medicare and Medicaid nursing home in the country. A nursing home is a place for people who can’t be cared for at home and need 24-hour nursing care. These are the official datasets used on the Medicare.gov Nursing Home Compare Website provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These data allow you to compare the quality of care at every Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country, including over 15,000 nationwide.

Nursing homes with residents positive for COVID-19 from 4/22/2020 to 6/19/2020. Starting in July 2020, this dataset will no longer be updated and will be replaced by the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset, available at the following link: https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/CMS-COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Dataset/w8wc-65i5. Methods: 1) Laboratory-confirmed case counts are based upon data reported via the FLIS web portal. Nursing homes were asked to provide cumulative totals of residents with laboratory confirmed covid. This includes residents currently in-house, in the hospital, or who are deceased. Residents were excluded if they tested positive prior to initial admission to the nursing home. 2) The cumulative number of deaths among nursing home residents is based upon data reported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. For public health surveillance, COVID-19-associated deaths include persons who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death (laboratory-confirmed) and persons whose death certificate lists COVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death (probable). Limitations: 1) As of the week of 5/10/20, Point Prevalence Survey testing is being offered to all asymptomatic nursing home residents to inform infection prevention efforts. Point prevalence surveys will be conducted over a period of several weeks. Some nursing homes had adequate testing resources available to conduct surveys prior to this date. Differences in survey timing will impact the number of positive results that a nursing home reports. 2) Cumulative totals of residents testing positive are being collected rather than individual resident data. Thus we cannot verify the counts, de-duplicate, and/or verify whether there is a record of a positive lab test. This may result in either under- or over-counting. 3) The number of COVID-19 positive residents and the number of confirmed deaths among residents are tabulated from different data sources. Due to the timing of availability of test results for deceased residents, it is not appropriate to calculate the percent of cases who died due to COVID-19 at any particular facility based upon this data. 4) The count of deaths reported for 4/14 are not included in this dataset, as they were not broken out by laboratory-confirmed or probable. They can be viewed in the DPH Report here: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/CTDPHCOVID19summary4162020.pdf?la=en

The Minimum Data Set (MDS) Frequency data summarizes health status indicators for active residents currently in nursing homes. The MDS is part of the Federally-mandated process for clinical assessment of all residents in Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes. This process provides a comprehensive assessment of each resident's functional capabilities and helps nursing home staff identify health problems. Care Area Assessments (CAAs) are part of this process, and provide the foundation upon which a resident's individual care plan is formulated. MDS assessments are completed for all residents in certified nursing homes, regardless of source of payment for the individual resident. MDS assessments are required for residents on admission to the nursing facility, periodically, and on discharge. All assessments are completed within specific guidelines and time frames. In most cases, participants in the assessment process are licensed health care professionals employed by the nursing home. MDS information is transmitted electronically by nursing homes to the national MDS database at CMS.

When reviewing the MDS 3.0 Frequency files, some common software programs e.g., ‘Microsoft Excel’ might inaccurately strip leading zeros from designated code values (i.e., "01" becomes "1") or misinterpret code ranges as dates (i.e., O0600 ranges such as 02-04 are misread as 04-Feb). As each piece of software is unique, if you encounter an issue when reading the CSV file of Frequency data, please open the file in a plain text editor such as ‘Notepad’ or ‘TextPad’ to review the underlying data, before reaching out to CMS for assistance.

This layer has been DEPRECATED (last updated12/1/2021). This was formerly a weekly update. Summary The Outbreak-Associated Cases in Congregate Living data dashboard on coronavirus.maryland.gov was redesigned on 11/17/21 to align with other outbreak reporting. Visit https://opendata.maryland.gov/dataset/MD-COVID-19-Congregate-Outbreak/ey5n-qn5s to view Outbreak-Associated Cases in Congregate Living data as reported after 11/17/21. Confirmed COVID-19 deaths among Maryland residents within a single Maryland jurisdiction who live and work in congregate living facilities for the reporting period. Description The MD COVID-19 - Total Deaths in Congregate Facility Settings data layer is a total of deaths confirmed by a positive COVID-19 test result that have been reported to MDH in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes of 10 or more and state and local facilities in each Maryland jurisdiction for the reporting period. Data are reported to MDH by local health departments, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Department of Juvenile Services. To appear on the list, facilities report at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 over the prior 14 days. Facilities are removed from the list when health officials determine 14 days have passed with no new cases and no tests pending. The list provides a point-in-time picture of COVID-19 case activity among these facilities. Numbers reported for each facility listed reflect totals ever reported for deaths. Data are updated once weekly. Terms of Use The Spatial Data, and the information therein, (collectively the "Data") is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed, implied, or statutory. The user assumes the entire risk as to quality and performance of the Data. No guarantee of accuracy is granted, nor is any responsibility for reliance thereon assumed. In no event shall the State of Maryland be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or special damages of any kind. The State of Maryland does not accept liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by inaccuracies in the Data or as a result to changes to the Data, nor is there responsibility assumed to maintain the Data in any manner or form. The Data can be freely distributed as long as the metadata entry is not modified or deleted. Any data derived from the Data must acknowledge the State of Maryland in the metadata.

Analysis of ‘Nursing Homes with Residents Positive for COVID-19, April - June 2020’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/8e9967f5-6ac9-44f7-8687-02fd436c3316 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Nursing homes with residents positive for COVID-19 from 4/22/2020 to 6/19/2020. Starting in July 2020, this dataset will no longer be updated and will be replaced by the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset, available at the following link: https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/CMS-COVID-19-Nursing-Home-Dataset/w8wc-65i5.

Methods: 1) Laboratory-confirmed case counts are based upon data reported via the FLIS web portal. Nursing homes were asked to provide cumulative totals of residents with laboratory confirmed covid. This includes residents currently in-house, in the hospital, or who are deceased. Residents were excluded if they tested positive prior to initial admission to the nursing home. 2) The cumulative number of deaths among nursing home residents is based upon data reported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. For public health surveillance, COVID-19-associated deaths include persons who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death (laboratory-confirmed) and persons whose death certificate lists COVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death (probable).

Limitations: 1) As of the week of 5/10/20, Point Prevalence Survey testing is being offered to all asymptomatic nursing home residents to inform infection prevention efforts. Point prevalence surveys will be conducted over a period of several weeks. Some nursing homes had adequate testing resources available to conduct surveys prior to this date. Differences in survey timing will impact the number of positive results that a nursing home reports. 2) Cumulative totals of residents testing positive are being collected rather than individual resident data. Thus we cannot verify the counts, de-duplicate, and/or verify whether there is a record of a positive lab test. This may result in either under- or over-counting. 3) The number of COVID-19 positive residents and the number of confirmed deaths among residents are tabulated from different data sources. Due to the timing of availability of test results for deceased residents, it is not appropriate to calculate the percent of cases who died due to COVID-19 at any particular facility based upon this data. 4) The count of deaths reported for 4/14 are not included in this dataset, as they were not broken out by laboratory-confirmed or probable. They can be viewed in the DPH Report here: https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/CTDPHCOVID19summary4162020.pdf?la=en

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Nursing Homes A nursing home is commonly referred to as a skilled nursing facility, long term care (LTC) facility, or rest home, and may have a different standardized name throughout the United States, but is most commonly referred to as a nursing home. A nursing home traditionally offers 24-hour (skilled) nursing to the elderly or to disabled patients having a variety of medical conditions who require personal care services above that of an assisted living but do not require hospitalization. The personal care services provided may or may not include, but are not limited to: skilled nursing, long term inpatient care, room and board, meals, laundry, and assistance with: dressing, grooming, getting in and out of bed, medications, bathing, and toileting. For purposes of this dataset, an assisted living facility is defined as a facility where the elderly, who are not related to the operator, reside and receive care, treatment, or services. Although not at the level of a nursing home, the services are above the level of an independent living community. They may include several hours per week of supportive care, personal care, or nursing care per resident. Generally, an assisted living facility offers help in daily living (laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc.) and personal assistance (bathing, eating, clothing, etc.). Many assisted living facilities offer assistance with medication and a lesser level of nursing care than what is offered at a nursing home. Assisted living facilities may be regulated by size restrictions depending on which type of assisted living facility it is considered to be in the state in which it exists. For example, Adult Family Homes in Wisconsin have between 3-4 elderly residents while Community Based Residential Facilities have 5 or more. Almost every state has different terminology to describe their version of the assisted living facility system. The structures in which assisted living facilities exist are varied as well. Depending on the type, an assisted living facility may operate out of a personal residence or a nursing home style structure, and it may be set up as apartment style living or as a campus setting in a continuing care retirement community. Multiple assisted living facilities may exist at one location or may be co-located with nursing homes and/or other similar health care facilities. If a facility is licensed by a state and holds multiple licenses, it is represented once in this dataset for each license, even if the licenses are for the same location. This dataset does not include retirement communities, adult daycare facilities, or rehabilitation facilities. Nursing Homes that are operated by and co-located with a hospital are also excluded because the locations are included in the hospital dataset. Records with "-DOD" appended to the end of the [NAME] value are located on a military base, as defined by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) military installations and military range boundaries. "#" and "*" characters were automatically removed from standard fields populated by TechniGraphics. Double spaces were replaced by single spaces in these same fields. Text fields in this dataset have been set to all upper case to facilitate consistent database engine search results. All diacritics (e.g., the German umlaut or the Spanish tilde) have been replaced with their closest equivalent English character to facilitate use with database systems that may not support diacritics. The currentness of this dataset is indicated by the [CONTDATE] field. Based on this field, the oldest record dates from 09/29/2009 and the newest record dates from 01/08/2010.

Statistics Canada, in collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Natural Resources Canada, is presenting selected Census data to help inform Canadians on the public health risk of the COVID-19 pandemic and to be used for modelling analysis. The data provided here show the counts of the population in nursing homes and/or residences for senior citizens by broad age groups (0 to 79 years and 80 years and over) and sex, from the 2016 Census. Nursing homes and/or residences for senior citizens are facilities for elderly residents that provide accommodations with health care services or personal support or assisted living care. Health care services include professional health monitoring and skilled nursing care and supervision 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for people who are not independent in most activities of daily living. Support or assisted living care services include meals, housekeeping, laundry, medication supervision, assistance in bathing or dressing, etc., for people who are independent in most activities of daily living. Included are nursing homes, residences for senior citizens, and facilities that are a mix of both a nursing home and a residence for senior citizens. Excluded are facilities licensed as hospitals, and facilities that do not provide any services (which are considered private dwellings).

As of 6/1/2023, this data set is no longer being updated. Connecticut nursing homes are required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to report on the impact of COVID-19 on their residents and staff through CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). This reporting is intended to reflect recent COVID-19 activity in nursing homes. Data presented here from NHSN reflect resident and staff COVID-19 cases and COVID-related deaths reported for Connecticut nursing homes for the previous week, Thursday–Wednesday. All nursing homes follow NHSN definitions and instructions when reporting to the NHSN COVID-19 module, ensuring data are reported in a systematic way. These data do not show where the resident or staff got infected. Detailed information about COVID-19 reporting for nursing homes and NHSN can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/nhsn/ltc/covid19/index.html

The Long Term Care Residences point datalayer contains the locations of licensed nursing homes, rest homes and assisted living residences in Massachusetts.Data on nursing homes and rest homes were provided by the Division of Health Care Facility Licensure and Certification and the Bureau of Environmental Health within the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH). Information on assisted living residences was provided by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs. The update published in Spring 2019 is based on listings as of Spring 2018, and replaces the Spring 2007 version of this dataset.Long-term care residences provide housing and services for individuals who are managing illness and/or disability attributed to physical and/or mental health conditions. While terminology may vary, generally long-term care facilities are distinguished by the type of medical and custodial (non-medical services such as dressing, bathing, etc.) care they provide, the relative independence of their residents, and the types of on-site amenities. Furthermore, some facilities cater to specific patient populations (e.g. Alzheimer's patients).For the purposes of this datalayer, a nursing home is defined as a residential facility that provides 24-hour nursing care, rehabilitative services and activities of daily living to the chronically ill who require a relatively high level of institutional support. A rest home provides 24-hour supervision and supportive services for individuals who do not routinely need nursing or medical care. Similarly, assisted living residences provide residents with housing and various daily living support services, but usually do not offer medical care. Assisted living residences often emphasize greater autonomy and privacy for residents through individual apartment-style rentals.Other residential facilities that provide long term care such as group homes (i.e. boarding homes or congregate housing) and hospice facilities are not explicitly specified in this datalayer. Many locations in this datalayer, however, may offer additional services ranging from independent retirement living to intensive skilled nursing and palliative care. Non-residential care locations such as adult day health, rehabilitation, and senior centers are omitted.MassGIS stores the data as LONGTERMCARE_PT. The March 2007 update this layer replaced NURSRESTHOMES_PT, which did not contain assisted living residences.MDPH staff used Accumail address correction software to clean and standardize addresses, and then geocoded the lists using TeleAtlas and/or Navteq street centerlines. Wherever possible, MDPH staff adjusted geocoded point locations to better represent actual locations of the facilities. Spatial refinement was done using a variety of sources (orthogonal and oblique aerial imagery, on-line property cards, facility websites, etc.). MassGIS staff performed additional quality assurance and adjusted the location of some features to Master Address Database building points. Attributes were verified and updated by MassGIS staff.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - Nursing HomesThis feature layer, utilizing data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), displays the locations of nursing homes in the U.S. Nursing homes provide a type of residential care. They are a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living. Per CMS, "Nursing homes, which include Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) and Nursing Facilities (NFs), are required to be in compliance with Federal requirements to receive payment under the Medicare or Medicaid programs. The Secretary of the United States Department of Health & Human Services has delegated to the CMS and the State Medicaid Agency the authority to impose enforcement remedies against a nursing home that does not meet Federal requirements." This layer includes currently active nursing homes, including number of certified beds, address, and other information.Bridgepoint Sub-Acute and Rehab Capitol HillData downloaded: August 1, 2024Data source: Provider InformationData modification: This dataset includes only those facilities with addresses that were appropriately geocoded.For more information: Nursing homes including rehab servicesFor feedback, please contact: ArcGIScomNationalMaps@esri.comCenters for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesPer USA.gov, "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides health coverage to more than 100 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. The CMS seeks to strengthen and modernize the Nation’s health care system, to provide access to high quality care and improved health at lower costs."

This dataset provides information gathered in 1973 from facilities providing nursing care to their residents. Nursing homes, their staff, and residents were surveyed. Data from the facility questionnaire include services offered, type of ownership, total number of beds, total number of residents, whether facility participated in Medicare and Medicaid, 1972 admissions, discharges, and deaths, number of patients receiving specific services and treatments, number of physicians, staff hours and payroll, and expenses. The resident questionnaire generated information on each resident's age, race, marital status, date of admission, prior living arrangements, reason for admission, diagnosis, chronic conditions, services received, medication, assistance with daily activities, frequency of doctor visits, and source of payment. The staff questionnaire data include sex, race, occupation, hours worked per week, salary, and education.

Analysis of ‘MD COVID-19 - Total Deaths in Congregate Facility Settings (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, State and Local Facilities and Group Homes +10 Residents)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/3159b65d-6682-4094-a74f-e25654b6e6d6 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Summary This layer has been DEPRECATED. The Outbreak-Associated Cases in Congregate Living data dashboard on coronavirus.maryland.gov was redesigned on 11/17/21 to align with other outbreak reporting. Visit https://opendata.maryland.gov/dataset/MD-COVID-19-Congregate-Outbreak/ey5n-qn5s to view Outbreak-Associated Cases in Congregate Living data as reported after 11/17/21.

Confirmed COVID-19 deaths among Maryland residents who live and work in congregate living facilities in Maryland for the reporting period.

Description The MD COVID-19 - Total Deaths in Congregate Facility Settings data layer is a total of deaths confirmed by a positive COVID-19 test result that have been reported to MDH in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes of 10 or more and state and local facilities for the reporting period. Data are reported to MDH by local health departments, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Department of Juvenile Services. To appear on the list, facilities report at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 over the prior 14 days. Facilities are removed from the list when health officials determine 14 days have passed with no new cases and no tests pending. The list provides a point-in-time picture of COVID-19 case activity among these facilities. Numbers reported for each facility listed reflect totals ever reported for deaths. Data are updated once weekly.

Terms of Use The Spatial Data, and the information therein, (collectively the "Data") is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed, implied, or statutory. The user assumes the entire risk as to quality and performance of the Data. No guarantee of accuracy is granted, nor is any responsibility for reliance thereon assumed. In no event shall the State of Maryland be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or special damages of any kind. The State of Maryland does not accept liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by inaccuracies in the Data or as a result to changes to the Data, nor is there responsibility assumed to maintain the Data in any manner or form. The Data can be freely distributed as long as the metadata entry is not modified or deleted. Any data derived from the Data must acknowledge the State of Maryland in the metadata.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Context

Upon reviewing the CMS website (https://data.cms.gov/covid-19/covid-19-nursing-home-data), it was apparent a number of nursing home providers were missing from a map plot that was intended to show COVID-19 statistics. I wanted to take a deeper look into the data and just play around with a few visualizations via the CMS provided data set, however I noticed the provided set did not contain any long/lat values for the nursing homes. It could also be seen that certain providers were not being mapped on the CMS website due to string being mixed with numbers in Provider IDs assigned to each provider. New Provider IDs were assigned in rank order, alphabetically and by State. Each nursing home, along with their address was pulled and used to obtain a set of coordinates for their facility and can be joined to the original dataset via Provider ID for use.

Content

Original dataset was sourced from the cms.gov website, with Geocodio being used to geocode the coordinates for the nursing homes. Per the CMS, "The data posted by CMS is what nursing homes submitted through the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) system. CMS and CDC perform quality assurance checks on the data and may suppress data that appear to be erroneous. The data is not altered from what nursing homes report to the NHSN system. Data regarding numbers of new cases, suspected cases, or deaths are aggregated.". Nursing homes reported weekly COVID statistics spanning 05/24/20 - 08/05/2021, ranging from case, death, vaccination, equipment, etc. for both residents and staff. A separate table containing address information and coordinates for each individual provider is available for joining, in order to map each facility for visualization.

Acknowledgements

Original Data Source: https://data.cms.gov/covid-19/covid-19-nursing-home-data

Geocode Source: https://www.geocod.io

Relations of nursing home residents with their relatives, reasons for home stay, need of help, assessments by care personnel. Topics: Occupation characteristics; management activity; length of home stay; residence partner before admission to home; number of children; reasons for home stay; need of help at time of admission into home; those providing help; initiator of application for admission to the home; most frequent contact person; distance to place of residence of this contact person; possession of a car and degree of employment of contact person; someone in need of nursing care or small child in their household; visit by other children; frequency of visits; further contacts with family; desire for other contacts; person to talk to with problems, a desire for something special and sorrow; change of relationship to children since admission to home; doing laundry in home; friendships with other home residents; adapting to the home; extent of remaining activities in the home; attitude to the possibility of living with children; personal questionnaire: type of home; contacts of home resident with his family; most frequent visitor; certain days without visitors; visit days; assessment of care by family. Beziehungen von Pflegeheimbewohnern zu ihren Angehörigen, Gründe für Heimaufenthalt, Hilfsbedürftigkeit, Einschätzungen durch das Pflegepersonal. Themen: Tätigkeitsmerkmale; Leitungstätigkeit; Dauer des Heimaufenthalts; Wohnpartner vor Heimaufnahme; Anzahl der Kinder; Gründe für Heimaufenthalt; Hilfsbedürftigkeit zum Zeitpunkt der Heimeinweisung; Hilfeleistende; Initiator der Heimantragstellung; häufigste Kontaktperson; Entfernung zum Wohnort dieser Kontaktperson; Autobesitz und Beschäftigungsgrad der Kontaktperson; Pflegebedürftiger bzw. Kleinkind in deren Haushalt; Besuch durch die anderen Kinder; Häufigkeit der Besuche; weitere Kontakte zur Familie; Wunsch nach anderen Kontakten; Ansprechperson bei Problemen, bei einem Wunsch nach etwas Besonderem und bei Kummer; Veränderung des Verhältnisses zu den Kindern seit der Heimaufnahme; Wäsche waschen im Heim; Freundschaften zu anderen Heimbewohnern; Einleben im Heim; Ausmaß der verbliebenen Aktivitäten im Heim; Haltung zur Möglichkeit bei seinen Kindern zu wohnen; Personalfragebogen: Heimart; Kontakte des Heimbewohners zu seiner Familie; häufigster Besuch; bestimmte Tage ohne Besuch; Besuchstage; Einschätzung der Betreuung durch die Familie.

As of 10/22/2020, this dataset is no longer being updated and has been replaced with a new dataset, which can be accessed here: https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-case-rate-per-100-000-population-and-perc/hree-nys2 This dataset includes the average daily COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 population by town over the last two MMWR weeks (https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/document/MMWR_week_overview.pdf). These counts do not include cases among people residing in congregate settings, such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or correctional facilities. This dataset will be updated weekly.

The Nursing Home Weekly Bed Census: Last Submission data is the most current nursing home data available. Available bed and occupancy information is self-reported and is not audited by the Department of Health.

The Department of Health requires nursing homes to complete electronic filing of each facility's licensed nursing home beds and availability by bed category on a weekly basis. This dataset is refreshed monthly.

From the project Web site: "To date, the Long-Term Care COVID Tracker is the most comprehensive dataset about COVID-19 in US long-term care facilities. It compiles crucial data about the effects of the pandemic on a population with extraordinary vulnerabilities to the virus due to age, underlying health conditions, or proximity to large outbreaks.

The dataset compiles all currently available information of COVID-19 cases and related deaths in long-term care facilities—nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, and other care homes—and tracks both residents and staff."

This dataset tracks the updates made on the dataset "MD COVID-19 - Total Deaths in Congregate Facility Settings (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, State and Local Facilities and Group Homes +10 Residents)" as a repository for previous versions of the data and metadata.

This dataset tracks the updates made on the dataset "MD COVID-19 - Total Cases in Congregate Facility Settings (Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, State and Local Facilities and Group Homes with +10 Residents)" as a repository for previous versions of the data and metadata.

DPH note about change from 7-day to 14-day metrics: As of 10/15/2020, this dataset is no longer being updated. Starting on 10/15/2020, these metrics will be calculated using a 14-day average rather than a 7-day average. The new dataset using 14-day averages can be accessed here: https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-case-rate-per-100-000-population-and-perc/hree-nys2

As you know, we are learning more about COVID-19 all the time, including the best ways to measure COVID-19 activity in our communities. CT DPH has decided to shift to 14-day rates because these are more stable, particularly at the town level, as compared to 7-day rates. In addition, since the school indicators were initially published by DPH last summer, CDC has recommended 14-day rates and other states (e.g., Massachusetts) have started to implement 14-day metrics for monitoring COVID transmission as well.

With respect to geography, we also have learned that many people are looking at the town-level data to inform decision making, despite emphasis on the county-level metrics in the published addenda. This is understandable as there has been variation within counties in COVID-19 activity (for example, rates that are higher in one town than in most other towns in the county).

This dataset includes a weekly count and weekly rate per 100,000 population for COVID-19 cases, a weekly count of COVID-19 PCR diagnostic tests, and a weekly percent positivity rate for tests among people living in community settings. Dates are based on date of specimen collection (cases and positivity).

A person is considered a new case only upon their first COVID-19 testing result because a case is defined as an instance or bout of illness. If they are tested again subsequently and are still positive, it still counts toward the test positivity metric but they are not considered another case.

These case and test counts do not include cases or tests among people residing in congregate settings, such as nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or correctional facilities.

These data are updated weekly; the previous week period for each dataset is the previous Sunday-Saturday, known as an MMWR week (https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nndss/document/MMWR_week_overview.pdf). The date listed is the date the dataset was last updated and corresponds to a reporting period of the previous MMWR week. For instance, the data for 8/20/2020 corresponds to a reporting period of 8/9/2020-8/15/2020.

Notes: 9/25/2020: Data for Mansfield and Middletown for the week of Sept 13-19 were unavailable at the time of reporting due to delays in lab reporting.