ORLANDO, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis' task force on the limited reopening of long-term care facilities is meeting Friday.
The major hurdle the group is trying to tackle is allowing visitation at care facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.
The task force wants to develop guidelines on how to safely allow family members to visit loved ones in longterm care facilities like this one. Visitation stopped across the state in March because of the pandemic.
What You Need To Know
- Gov. DeSantis Task Force on Reopening of Long Term Care facilities is meeting Friday
- Group trying to determine how to handle allowing visitation at facilities
- COMPLETE COVERAGE: Spectrum News | Florida Department of Health | CDC
The task force, which includes caregivers, Florida's surgeon general and the vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association, is also slated to discuss antibody testing and how to best assist essential caregivers.
Orange County Health Officer Doctor Raul Pino said 9 of the 34 recent coronavirus deaths were longterm care facility residents across the county.
He said the Orlando Health and Rehabilitation Center has the highest cases in the county.
"This is a place that has been assigned for isolation and quarantine," Pino said. "So we should expect the case there to be high. They have seven additional cases since the 10th
"On August 1, we have 553 individuals positive in longterm care facilities, and as of today we have 227, so there's been a significant reduction of the number of people."
Dr. Pino said because of that, by next week, we could start seeing a decline in the coronavirus death rate in Orange County.
Other facilities Dr. Pino mentioned include Ocoee Health Center, which had an outbreak last month. There have been no new cases since August 10, and the facility has had 94 cases in total.