ORLANDO, Fla. _ Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit an Orlando nursing home Wednesday to deliver personal protective equipment, or PPE, and to meet with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
According to the White House, Pence will discuss Florida's phased reopening with the governor. DeSantis announced Friday that the state will move towards a "full Phase 1" with the reopening of gyms and expansion of restaurant seating to 50% capacity on Monday.
The vice president will also join in a roundtable with hospitality and tourism industry leaders to talk about reopening.
In between, Pence will also deliver PPE to an unnamed nursing home, part of a White House initiative to deliver PPE to 15,000 nursing homes nationwide.
DeSantis said last week he was trying to determine how to allow visitors at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for the first time since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
Emmett Reed, executive director of the Florida Health Care Association, had said the ultimate solution could be some combination of "strong screening procedures, testing, proper infection controls and PPE (personal protective equipment), designated areas with appropriate social distancing, along with a process that is facility and community-specific based on the impact of COVID-19."
A Miami Herald report Wednesday showed that one month after DeSantis began sending "strike" testing teams to nursing homes, about 13,000 residents and staff at 150 facilities had been tested out of the 150,000 residents and 200,000 staff at 700 nursing homes and 3,100 assisted living facilities in Florida.
Pence was last in Central Florida in January for a "Latinos for Trump" campaign event. He also visited Orlando in September 2018 for a Florida GOP event.
