Florida Nursing Homes Reporting New Cases of COVID-19 on the Rise
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – The latest release of AARP's Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard shows that the percentage of Florida nursing homes reporting new resident cases of COVID-19 continues to rise, up from 14% to 19% in the four weeks ending May 16, 2021. The new report from AARP marks one year of tracking nursing home data related to COVID-19 through the AARP Nursing Home Dashboard.
AARP Florida Interim State Director Dionne Polite said, “Not only are new reports of nursing home resident cases on the rise, but nearly 50% of Florida nursing homes continue to report new cases of COVID-19 among staff at these facilities. Encouraging vaccination of Florida’s long-term care workers must remain a priority.
“AARP urges Floridians to explore their options to become vaccinated. We have up-to-date resources available to you, simply visit www.aarp.org/flvaccine.”
The latest Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard data shows new infections among residents are on the rise. Approximately 19% of Florida’s nursing homes had new confirmed resident cases in the last four weeks, higher than the national average of 10%, while nearly 50% of nursing homes continue to report new staff cases in the same time period, 18% more than the national average. Approximately 22% of Florida’s nursing homes continue to suffer from staffing shortages, unchanged from the previous month’s report.
Using data released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—which is self-reported by nursing homes—the AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio, created the AARP Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard to provide four-week snapshots of the virus' infiltration into nursing homes and impact on nursing home residents and staff. The dashboard will continue to be updated every four weeks. The complete dashboard is available at aarp.org/nursinghomedashboard.
The federal data do not include coronavirus cases among residents or staff of assisted-living facilities, group homes and other congregate elder-care facilities. That data is included in Florida government statistics.
