At the end of last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) initiated a new push of personal protective equipment (PPE) totaling five million masks, four million gloves and two million gowns to all long-term care facilities in Florida to assist with new procedures outlined in Emergency Order 20-009.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, my administration’s top priority has been to protect individuals most vulnerable to COVID-19,” said DeSantis on Friday. “We hope this direct shipment of PPE to long-term care facilities throughout the state helps them safely transition to allowing limited visitation.”
“From the beginning, Florida has led on long term care facility PPE and testing, and we are continuing to lead the way today,” said FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz. “For the last 90 days, we have been running the largest long-term care testing mission in the nation. I have no doubt that the actions we have taken to protect nursing home residents have saved lives, and we will continue to do everything we can to keep our most vulnerable populations safe.”
The Emergency Order requires all visitors to wear PPE pursuant to most recent CDC guidelines, and those not making physical contact still must wear a mask. Per the Emergency Order, to accept general visitors, the facility must meet the following:
- No new facility-onset of resident COVID-19 cases within 14 days other than in a dedicated wing or unit that accepts COVID-19 cases from the community;
- If a staff member tests positive for COVID-19, the facility must immediately cease all indoor and outdoor visitation in the event that staff person was in the facility in the 10 days prior to the positive test;
- Sufficient staff to support management of visitors;
- Adequate PPE for facility staff;
- Adequate cleaning and disinfecting supplies; and
- Adequate capacity at referral hospitals for the facility.
With this push of PPE, for long-term care facilities alone, the Division has sent:
- More than 15 million masks
- 5 million gloves
- Nearly 3 million gowns
- More than 500,000 face shields
Including this push of PPE, to date, the Division has sent the following PPE to support health care workers, first responders and long-term care facilities:
- Nearly 69 million masks
- More than 22 million gloves
- More than 7 million gowns
- More than 2 million face shields
- More than 1.2 million shoe covers
- More than 110,000 goggles
- More than 76,500 coveralls
