NewsCoronavirus

Actions

Gov. DeSantis Discusses Impacts of COVID-19 on South Florida

Posted at 5:06 PM, Jul 07, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-07 17:06:02-04

On Tuesday Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to help residents of long-term care facilities that have been impacted by COVID-19.

During a press conference held at the Miami Care Center, the governor said the facility currently has 70 beds available for long-term care residents and will soon have up to 150.

The governor noted that residents who tested positive couldn't go back to nursing homes due to issues with isolating patients. Rather than staying at hospitals, the new facility will be able to take care of them.

"In South Florida, you now have the Miami Care Center, you have a facility in Broward that’s COVID only and then you have two in Palm Beach County that are COVID only," DeSantis said. "So that’s a pretty significant number of beds to be able to care for people who are COVID positive, but care for them in a way that they’re not spreading it to other vulnerable seniors in these long-term care facilities.”

The governor also announced it will now be required for all staff and members of long-term care facilities to be tested for the virus every two week. As these tests come in, Desantis said he anticipates the number of cases to go up.