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Jacksonville nursing home records its 21st death; Nursing home advocacy group pushes for rapid testing machines in all long-term care facilities

According to Signature HealthCARE of Jacksonville 21 residents have died after testing positive for COVID-19.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — More residents of a Jacksonville nursing home who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. According to Signature HealthCARE of Jacksonville's COVID hotline, 21 residents have now died.

Since the pandemic started the westside nursing home says 96 of its residents and 56 staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Eighty-eight have recovered.

Starting this week Signature HealthCARE of Jacksonville says it will test staff every two weeks to help reduce the risk of transmission.

The Florida Health Department's most recent data shows only 15 long-term care facilities in Florida have had more deaths associated with COVID-19 than Signature HealthCARE of Jacksonville.

“I think those numbers are shocking, but I think that those numbers are becoming more of the norm in facilities because of the fact that the facilities don't have the ability on-site to actually be able to identify who has a virus and who doesn't,” Brian Lee said.

Lee is the Executive Director of Families for Better Care, a national advocacy group that works to protect the rights and safety of residents who live in long-term care facilities. His group is pushing for every nursing home to have rapid testing machines so all residents and staff can quickly be tested on an ongoing basis, regardless of symptoms.

“We've been pushing for this for months," Lee said. "We've asked the feds to unlock nursing home fines to pay for these rapid test machines for every nursing home, and they just rebuffed that proposal, and we are calling on them to revisit that decision.”

Lee says Florida has millions of dollars in coffers from fines nursing homes have paid that could be used to pay for the machines if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would green-light the project.

“There are $25-26 million dollars out there that could pay for these rapid test machines,” Lee said. “Since there only about 700 nursing homes in the state of Florida, that's about 4,000 or so rapid test machines that can be purchased for the 700 nursing homes that exist out there with the funds that are already available.”

It's a move he says would steamroll the curve in nursing homes.

“This will save lives,” Lee said. “It wouldn't cost taxpayers a single dime.”

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