The Department of Veteran Affairs' COVID-19 data reflecting May 2020 to Nov. 7, 2021, shows 1,498 residents and 54 staff at its facilities have died from the virus, figures likely to rise with missing data from harder-hit states, Politico reported Nov. 19.
VA policies regarding COVID-19 data reporting changed Nov. 18 following pressure from Congress. Downloadable spreadsheets with reports for individual state homes and graphs showing case and death trends for residents and staff will now be available.
CMS oversees most of the homes and has declined to publicly report the data for the homes not under its purview.
Many state homes currently report no deaths, but the department stressed numbers are still being submitted and reviewed so the charts will be updated. However, some may continue to show few or no deaths as they were not required to report their numbers until February 2021, according to Politico.