Fewer long-term care facility residents are being admitted to hospitals, DeSantis says

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at July 7 COVID-19 news conference in Miami. (WPLG)

MIAMI – Gov. Ron DeSantis was in South Florida Tuesday, where he held a news conference regarding the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The news conference was held at the Miami Care Center in Miami.

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The governor said the facility currently has 70 beds available for COVID-19 positive residents of long-term care facilities and will soon have up to 150 beds available.

“This is very important,” DeSantis said. “So 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. 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.”

DeSantis acknowledged that there has been more patients admitted to hospitals across the state in the past few weeks, but said hospitals like Jackson Memorial Hospital can attest that they are seeing a smaller number of long-term care facility residents being admitted.

“Look, we’d obviously like this not to be here and not to have anyone admitted, but those residents of long-term care facilities, when they’re admitted they have a much, much higher rate of mortality, and so to see that decline is something that is very, very positive,” DeSantis said.

The governor said it is now required that all staff members of LTC facilities be tested for the virus every two weeks.

He said that’s between 180,000 and 190,000 people across the state who are being tested biweekly.

DeSantis said he anticipates that the cases will go up as the tests results come in, especially in areas like Miami-Dade County, where cases are continuing to rise throughout the community.


About the Author:

Amanda Batchelor is the Digital Executive Producer for Local10.com.