Nursing home deaths increased 32% in 2020 amid pandemic, report finds By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar article BOSTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 2: A resident in a wheelchair at an assisted living facility in Boston, MA on September 02, 2020. In the Commonwealth’s senior care sites, the coronavirus took a particularly insidious hold in the spring and early summer, and t Expand WASHINGTON (AP) - Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes soared by 32% last year, with two devastating spikes eight months apart, a government watchdog reported Tuesday in the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19 among its most vulnerable victims. The report from the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services found that about 4 in 10 Medicare recipients in nursing homes had or likely had COVID-19 in 2020, and that deaths overall jumped by 169,291 from the previous year, before the coronavirus appeared.