A comparison of the epidemiology of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks occurring in the first and second pandemic waves in care homes in Northern Ireland

To the Editor—The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic has had a devastating impact on older people living in care homes.1–3 COVID-19 poses a significant risk to care-home residents who have poor underlying health and are more vulnerable to infection.4–6 Understanding the epidemiology of COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes is necessary to aid disease prevention.7 Here, we describe and compare the epidemiologies of COVID-19 outbreaks occurring in the first and second pandemic waves in care homes in Northern Ireland using routinely available data. [...]evaluating the relationship between care-home size and outbreaks indicates that as care-home size increased, the setting was more likely to record at least 1 outbreak. [...]improvements occurred in the measurements of those variables that were selected as markers of outbreak severity.