TALLAHASSEE — Florida nursing homes and assisted-living facilities have seen a 74 percent increase in coronavirus cases in the past month despite efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to isolate the elderly sick and avoid the kind of catastrophe that hit New York earlier in the pandemic, according a POLITICO analysis of state reporting data.
The governor’s novel move to cloister ill residents hasn’t prevented the virus from walking through the front doors of nursing homes. Infected, asymptomatic health workers themselves are carrying the virus and transmitting to their own patients, Mary Mayhew, secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, said in an interview Wednesday.
Now, as a result, cases at nursing homes are soaring. The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday reported that an average of 2,606 residents a day tested positive for the coronavirus last week, a 74 percent increase from the 1,496 residents a month ago, during the week of June 14.
About one in five Florida residents is 65 or older, and the state is home to 691 licensed nursing homes with 84,448 beds.
And the number of infected workers at nursing homes and assisted-living facilities has more than doubled over the past month. On June 14, 2,326 facility employees tested positive for Covid-19. As of Monday, there were 5,766 cases.
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Coronavirus cases in Florida's nursing homes have soared 74% in the past month. Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to isolate the ill elderly isn't stopping the spread. https://t.co/nxbwWklgwD
— POLITICO (@politico) July 16, 2020
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