Author: Sharon

When the administrator of the Saugus Rehab and Nursing Center in Saugus, Massachusetts, heard that a new Medicare website reported her facility had 794 confirmed cases of COVID-19 — the second highest in the country — and 281 cases among staff, she gasped.

“Oh my God. Where are they getting those numbers from?” said Josephine Ajayi. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Those weren’t the numbers that her facility reported to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, under new rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), she said.

Ajayi said her 80-bed facility actually reported 45 residents have tested positive and five residents died, although the CMS website showed no Saugus deaths. About 19 staff members tested positive for the virus, and most have returned to work, she said.

Officials at skilled nursing facilities around the country said Monday they were shocked to see their data reported inaccurately — wildly so in some cases, as at the Saugus home — on the new CMS public website

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Recently published research says

mortality risk relative to those with normal blood glucose was highest in those with newly diagnosed diabetes, at a 9.42-fold risk increase after accounting for age, sex, smoking, systolic blood pressure, and total cholesterol levels.

This size of risk increase was linked specifically to raised fasting glucose; there was a 10.4-fold risk increase in the subgroup of patients with fasting glucose of 7.0 mmol/L or higher but HbA1c below 6.5%.

People with hyperglycemia below the diabetes threshold and those with established diabetes also had a significantly increased mortality risk, but to a lesser degree, at 3.29- and 4.63-fold, respectively.

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https://www.medwirenews.com/diabetes/infectious-disease/diabetes-may-present-greatest-risk-to-covid-19-patients/18064790