WASHINGTON _ Florida health officials released stark new data late Friday showing that deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities appear to have accounted for 60% of the deaths in Florida this past week from COVID-19.
The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 665 deaths from COVID-19 at such facilities, an increase of 242 deaths from last week's report.
In the same time period, the state's overall toll increased by 401 deaths.
The state first released data detailing deaths in long-term care facilities last week under pressure from The Miami Herald and other news organizations, who filed a lawsuit over denial of public records. As with last week's data, the report raised a number of questions. For instance, there were eight facilities on the newly updated list of long-term care deaths then that didn't appear on a list of homes with COVID-19 cases _ as opposed to deaths _ released earlier in the day.
To date, patients and staff at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other long-term care providers have accounted for four out every 10 deaths in the state from COVID-19.
The Seminole Pavilion Rehabilitation & Nursing Services home in Seminole has accounted for the most deaths in the state _ 22 residents and one staff member.
Three other nursing homes _ the Braden River Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton, the Highlands Lake Center in Lakeland and the Suwannee Health and Rehabilitation Center in Live Oak _ each had 18 deaths.
In South Florida, the Manor Pines Convalescent Center in Wilton Manor had the most deaths with 16, all residents.
Overall, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties accounted for nearly half of the deaths in long-term care facilities in the state.
The DeSantis administration is struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus among the elderly, even as it moves to allow more businesses and parks to reopen to the public. The state has grudgingly started to make public fuller COVID-19 data, under the pressure brought by the Miami Herald and other news media.
Less than two weeks ago, while at the White House with President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted what he deemed Florida's success in keeping the coronavirus out of senior care facilities. DeSantis pointed to Florida's percentage of COVID-19 infections per 100,000 residents.
DeSantis recently sparked controversy by jokingly calling Florida "God's waiting room" because of the large numbers of retirees and residents in senior care facilities. Scientists say the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are most vulnerable to the respiratory disease that has infected more than 1.3 million Americans, including staffers close to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
During the White House visit by DeSantis, President Trump praised the governor's "spectacular job" and his "great (coronavirus) numbers." At the time, DeSantis said he'd ordered all staff at senior care facilities to be screened to determine if they had a temperature.
Florida has resisted widespread testing like that done of all staff and residents in Maryland nursing homes and similar comprehensive testing in Ohio. At the same White House news conference, members of the Trump administration's coronavirus task force advocated for wider screening because of the asymptomatic spread of the virus.
To date, about 10% of all workers in senior care facilities and 2% of residents have been tested, according to estimates from the Florida Health Care Association, a trade group.
A story Thursday reported jointly by The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times documented how some Florida nursing homes moved more than a month earlier than the DeSantis administration to take protective measures but could not fully prevent infections because of the inability to widely test residents. And even when the testing was done, the results often took so long that infection had time to spread within a facility.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and the state's health department have recently deployed so-called rapid emergency support teams to senior care centers.
The state began using a mobile testing lab on Wednesday, equipped with a rapid diagnostic testing machine that will travel to long-term care facilities, test residents and staff, and produce test results in 45 minutes, although reports have said that results are not provided on the spot. That same day, DeSantis did what long-term care facilities had been seeking for nearly two months: He ordered hospitals to test patients for COVID-19 before transferring them to long-term care facilities.
