With a cluster of COVID-19 cases at a Keys nursing home, 2 more workers test positive
The number of positive cases of COVID-19 at a Florida Keys nursing home has reached 16 since mass testing of staff and residents began last week, according to one of the owners of the facility.
The home, Crystal Health and Rehab Center on Plantation Key, has been the predominant source of new cases of COVID-19 in the Keys in the past two weeks. In that time, 11 residents and five staff members have tested positive, one of the owners, Ira Chafetz, said Tuesday.
In early May, the Florida Department of Health dispatched a “strike team” to the facility after two elderly women died there within days of a staff speech therapist testing positive. The women, it turned out, did not have COVID-19, but health officials ordered all 70 employees and 80 residents tested.
Forty-five tests have come back negative, Chafetz said, and 20 residents must be retested because their results were inconclusive.
Bob Eadie, administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County, said the re-testing is expected to happen Thursday.
“It’s an ongoing operation,” Eadie said Wednesday.
All the residents who have tested positive have been isolated to a separate part of the building that is now dedicated to treating patients with COVID-19, Jake Walden, another owner, said last week. Their families have been notified, he said.
The hallway between that wing and the rest of the building has been completely sealed off, according to Chafetz. And, the 20 people who need to be retested are being kept away from the rest of the population, he said.
Group activities at the home have been canceled, and Crystal Health is not accepting any new residents, Walden said.
According to the latest Department of Health numbers released Wednesday, 96 people in the Keys have tested positive for COVID-19. Three people have died from the illness. Statewide, 42,402 people have tested positive for the virus, and 1,827 people have died, according to the health department.
Some relatives of Crystal Health residents say they are frustrated with what they consider a lack of communication from management about their loved ones’ conditions. They say it’s difficult to get staff on the phone, and when they do get through, their call is often passed around until it goes to voicemail.
Several residents protested outside of the nursing home Sunday afternoon.
One woman, who did not want her name published, said until this week, she had not been able to speak to her 84-year-old father who has lived there for a month.
“You can’t get through to anybody,” she said.
Her father had a cellphone on which she used to communicate with him regularly, but he broke it.
Since mid-March, in-person visitations at Florida nursing homes have been prohibited, so families have struggled to keep in touch with loved ones.
She spoke to him this week and found out he is one of the ones who needs re-testing.
“He feels fine, but that does not mean anything,” she said. “I guess the best we can do is wait and see.”
