Coronavirus Disease 2019 in French Residential Care Facilities: A Nationwide Study

Objectives: The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a considerable mortality in long-term care facilities (LTCFs), including residential care setting and nursing homes. This study aimed to estimate COVID-19 incidence and mortality in residential care facilities and to compare them with those recorded in nursing homes. Design: Nationwide observational study conducted by French health authorities. Settings and participants: Since March 1, 2020, all LTCFs in France reported all COVID-19 cases and COVID19-related deaths among their residents. Methods: Possible cases were those with COVID-19-related symptoms without laboratory confirmation and confirmed cases those with a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test or serology positive for SARS-CoV-2. We included facilities with at least 1 confirmed case of COVID-19 and estimated the cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases and mortality due to COVID-19 reported until June 30, 2020, using the maximum bed capacity as a denominator. Results: Of the 2288 residential care facilities, 310 (14%) and, of the 7688 nursing homes, 3110 (40%) reported COVID-19 cases among residents (P < .001). The cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was significantly lower in residential care facilities as compared with nursing homes (1.10 vs 9.97 per 100 beds, P < .001). Mortality due to COVID-19 was also lower in residential care facilities compared with nursing homes (0.07 vs 1.29 per 100 beds, P < .001). Case fatality was lower in residential care facilities (6.49% vs 12.93%, P < .001). Conclusion and implications: French residential care facilities experienced a much lower burden from COVID-19 than nursing homes. Our findings may inform the implementation of better infection control practices in these settings. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of AMDA -The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).