‘Strike team’ arrives at Florida Keys nursing home to test staff, residents for COVID-19
A “strike team” of government health professionals began testing all staff at a Florida Keys nursing home Saturday morning for the novel coronavirus after one employee tested positive and tests are pending on two women who died there this week who officials say may have had the disease.
The state Department of Health also sent a “Rapid Emergency Support Team” to the facility to train staff there how to provide clinical care for patients who contract COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, an email sent Saturday from the State Emergency Operations Center stated.
It’s not immediately clear if other patients at the facility have shown COVID-19 symptoms.
About a dozen employees sat outside of the Crystal Health and Rehab Center on Plantation Key waiting to be tested Saturday morning.
The employees could not be interviewed. A Miami Herald reporter was kicked off the property and a staff member threatened to call the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office if any photographs were taken.
The employee who tested positive is a speech pathologist at the center. The two women who died were 101 and 87 years old.
Alison Kerr, spokeswoman for the Department of Health in Monroe County, said tests are pending to determine if the women had the disease.
“The cause of death in both cases has not been officially determined,” she said. “Investigation is ongoing.”
The healthcare professionals conducting the tests consist of members of the Florida Department of Health, the Florida National Guard and the Agency for Health Care Administration, which regulates nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.
“The Department of Health is providing support for testing at a facility in Monroe County with a strike team in partnership with the Florida National Guard and the Agency for Health Care Administration,” the state EOC said in the email.
Team members include infection preventionists, local county health department staff and regional AHCA staff and nurses, according to the email.
Executives at Crystal Health and Rehab Center have not returned requests for comment.
As of Saturday, 80 people in Monroe County have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Department of Health. Three people have died. A total of 1,324 people out of a population of about 74,000 have been tested.
