VERO BEACH, Fla. — Families are calling on the state to better monitor infection control practices inside Florida nursing homes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking a call to action and has said he will send a team back out to every long-term care facility across the state.
"We did this at the beginning of the pandemic," said DeSantis. "We were able to help rectify some poor practices and we're going to do it again just to make sure that we're doing the best we can."
Cindy and Tom Aspromonte said their 89-year-old loved one contracted COVID-19 from inside a Vero Beach nursing home on a Sunday. By Friday night, she was gone.
"A second (wave of incident management teams) is a little bit too late for my mother-in-law and for the other people that have died in there or may die in there," said Cindy Aspromonte.
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"These places need more stringent watchmen going in there and checking these places out," said Tom Aspromonte.
Melissa Schwankey and her sister, Laura, also said their mother contracted coronavirus from inside a Vero Beach nursing home.
"A lot of these people have no family," said Schwankey. "This nursing staff, that's who they rely on."
They said even better infection control practices are needed.
DeSantis said he is working with the federal government to provide a point of care testing for health-care workers.
The governor said if that can be done, and with quick results, it may help in terms of visitation into some of the long-term care facilities which have not been allowed since March.