The Need to Include Assisted Living in Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The risk of complications and death from COVID-19 is markedly skewed toward older adults. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently wrote, “Given their congregate nature and residents served (eg, older adults often with underlying chronic medical conditions), nursing home populations are at the highest risk of being affected by COVID-19. If infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, residents are at increased risk of serious illness.”1