DeSantis mobilizes national guard, closes nursing homes in Broward County to all visitors
March 13, 2020 - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday that he would be prohibiting all visitation to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult family care homes, longer term care facilities and group homes in Broward County for the next thirty days in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. DeSantis also announced he would be mobilizing the Florida National Guard to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The scope of the mobilization has not yet been determined. DeSantis provided an update regarding testing and cases of coronavirus in Florida. He said there were 17 new cases of COVID-19 in Florida overnight, moving the total number of cases in Florida to 51. There are currently 221 tests pending results, according to the governor, 478 tests with negative results, 1048 individuals have been monitored to date and are no longer being monitored, while 365 individuals are currently being monitored. According to DeSantis, of the tests from community health centers across the state, 90 percent are coming back negative. DeSantis has asked the Florida Surgeon General to expand testing capabilities across the state of Florida, purchase 2500 testing kits with the capacity to process up to 625,000 individuals.