A state strike team entered the Crystal Health & Rehab Center on Plantation Key on Saturday to conduct testing after a speech therapist tested positive for COVID-19 late last week. Testing is complete, but test results haven’t come back yet.
Bob Eadie, health officer for Monroe County, told officials Monday morning that testing was completed on the center’s residents and employees. Any actions that need to be taken are underway, he said.
“The primary goal is to make sure all of the clients and residents in the facility are protected and their health is being monitored, and the same with the employee staff,” he said. “The tests won’t be back until sometime later this week.”
Eadie says he doesn’t believe there’s been any hospitalizations out of the situation so far. And there have been no reports as of Monday evening from the Florida Health Department of any COVID-19-related deaths inside the nursing home.
“We’re in a monitoring situation for this,” he said. “Monroe County Health Department is in a supportive role for the state.”
The Weekly reached out to Ruth Robinson, Crystal Health executive director, for additional comment on Saturday, but no response was received as of Monday evening.
Countywide, no new positive cases were reported as of Monday. The last uptick was seen on May 2 of a case involving a Key West resident. The case total stands at 80.
A total of 1,375 tests have been performed to date in Monroe County, per the state health department’s latest report. Of those tests,1,295 have come back negative.
With the testing that’s been conducted, the county’s percentage of positive cases is 6%. With just over 96,500 tests done, Dade is reporting a 14% positive case rate, while Broward with a little over 52,700 tests complete has a 10% percent positive case rate.
Eadie reported that no one was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 as of Monday morning. Eadie said the health department will continue to monitor the situation and see what impact, if any, the loosening of restrictions by Gov. Ron DeSantis taking effect today will have.
Eadie said a testing task force met Friday as progress is being made on potentially bringing more testing to the Keys. The biggest issue, right now according to Eadie, is logistics.
“The testing, I think we can handle the sites right now. We have an adequate supply of PCR tests. If necessary, the health department could do that,” he said.
With more testing, Eadie said there will be more contacts to trace. He said he will be reaching out to the state for assistance.
“It’s a kind of a laborious and time consuming job to do right now, so you need to have people who are trained and ready to do it,” he said.
County Mayor Heather Carruthers asked how many current active cases there are in Monroe County. No definitive number was given, but Eadie said the plan right now is to retest those individuals to see where they currently are at with the virus.
