How We Analyzed Data on Nursing Home Outbreaks

New Jersey’s long-term care population has been hard-hit by the pandemic. The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 16,000 people in the state so far, almost half of whom lived in long-term care facilities, and more than 5,400 of whom were nursing home residents. No other state has a higher number of known deaths from COVID-19 linked to nursing homes and assisted living facilities, based on officially released numbers from states.

Nursing homes played a difficult role during the pandemic’s early months. The facilities house a population particularly vulnerable to the...