After refusing for weeks, Florida reveals flurry of deaths at individual nursing homes, ALFs


The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis disclosed the fatality numbers after several news organizations, including The Miami Herald, filed suit under the state’s public records law to force the data’s release — and in the wake of withering pressure from elder advocates and the families of long-term care residents who have been isolated in nursing homes and assisted living facilities for a month

Problems immediately emerged with what was released. For example, more than a month ago, administrators at the 180-bed Atria Willow Wood ALF in Fort Lauderdale confirmed that at least six residents had died of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. But the chart released Friday includes only three resident deaths as confirmed, while three remained “under investigation.”

Some of the data raised eyebrows. One nursing home in the Panhandle, the 210-bed Southern Oaks Care Center, was reported to have had three resident deaths — though recent data from health administrators showed 94 residents of the Pensacola home had been infected. Based on previous data, 40% to 50% of long-term care residents infected with the virus die.

In response to some private hospitals’ decision to bar partners, New York will order all hospitals to allow partners in delivery rooms, despite the coronavirus risk.

Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, announced that an executive order would be issued that required all hospitals in New York, both public and private, to allow women to have a partner in the labor and delivery room — in compliance with the latest guidance from the New York State Department of Health.

The order, which the governor released Saturday night, is a response to a decision earlier this week by two major New York City hospital systems, NewYork-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai, to ban support people from labor and delivery rooms because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Medical professionals around the US told BuzzFeed News that the official numbers of people who have died of COVID-19 are not consistent with the number of deaths they’re seeing on the front lines. In some cases, it’s a lag in reporting, caused by delays and possible breakdowns in logging positive tests and making them public. In other, more troubling, cases, medical experts told BuzzFeed News they think it’s because people are not being tested before or after they die.

In California, one ER doctor who works at multiple hospitals in a hard-hit county told BuzzFeed News, “those medical records aren't being audited by anyone at the state and local level currently and some people aren’t even testing those people who are dead.” “We just don't know. The numbers are grossly underreported. I know for a fact that we’ve had three deaths in one county where only one is listed on the website,” the doctor said.

And two of the hardest-hit areas in the nation — New York City and Los Angeles County — released guidance earlier this week encouraging doctors not to test patients unless they think the test will significantly change their course of treatment. That means that potentially more people in both places could be admitted to hospitals with severe respiratory symptoms and recover — or die — and not be registered as a coronavirus case.