An illustration of the coronavirus. | CDC via AP Coronavirus surfaces in 19 elder care facilities in Florida

Nineteen long-term care facilities in Florida have either a suspected or confirmed case of the coronavirus, including two confirmed cases in Duval and Broward counties.

Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew said she could not divulge the name or addresses of the nursing facilities, citing patient privacy requirements. She said she would look into providing more information in aggregate.


Mayhew‘s agency has dispatched strike teams to affected facilities, contingents that include a nurse, an epidemiologist, an infectious disease prevention specialist and a state facility surveyor from the health agency who has been trained on the coronavirus.

Mayhew expressed concern about how hospitals are working with nursing homes, where the sickest patients reside.

Hospitals and nursing homes transfer patients back and forth on a regular basis, depending on their health care needs. Some Florida hospitals are equipped to handle coronavirus patients, but nursing homes are not.

"I can’t afford to have someone transferred from a hospital to a nursing home when obvious signs were overlooked for testing," Mayhew told POLITICO.

Her agency is working to set up a statewide, around-the-clock hotline so nursing homes can more easily report suspected cases of the coronavirus, or Covid-19.

CORRECTION: This report has been corrected to reflect the number of confirmed cases and their location.