COVID-19 claims one more life in Manatee County. State death toll stands at 867
One more resident in Manatee County has died from COVID-19, as the county continues to have the fourth-highest death toll statewide.
There have now been 34 people who have died from the disease in Manatee County. Only Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have had more deaths from COVID-19, according to the Florida Department of Health.
An additional 44 deaths were reported statewide on Tuesday, bringing Florida’s death toll to 867. Among the latest deaths were people in Broward, Dade, Escambia, Lee, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
Ten more residents in Manatee County have also tested positive for the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19. In all, there are 443 people who have tested positive in Manatee County — the 10th highest number of total cases among the 67 counties in Florida.
Statewide, there were 811 newly reported cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday evening. Florida’s total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak started is now at 27,869.
The percentage of those who test positive for the coronavirus in Manatee County is the third highest in the state, behind only Suwannee and Jefferson counties. Of the 2,718 people who have been tested, 16.3 percent have tested positive in Manatee County.
Manatee County also has the fourth highest count of overall COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities and deaths in those facilities. As of Tuesday morning, there were 128 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in six skilled nursing homes and two assisted living facilities.
Of those 128 cases, two facilities have a total 103 of the cases, Department of Health Manatee County health officer Dr. Jennifer Bencie told county commissioners on Tuesday morning. Bencie did not name the two facilities but said they were both owned by the same company.
“The company took it upon themselves to test all of the staff and clients when they started seeing the uptick,” Bencie said. “Getting those tests back in the last week, 66 residents and 37 staff, for a total of 103, in those two facilities were positive.”
Of the eight facilities in Manatee with COVID-19 cases, Braden River Rehabilitation Center in Bradenton and Riviera Palms Rehabilitation Center in Palmetto are the only facilities both managed by the same company: Southern Healthcare Management.
“We’re very glad they did that to get a handle of who was positive and what was happening in those facilities because not only were those staff members working in those facilities, but also going out to other facilities where we’ve since learned have been testing positive in those facilities,” Bencie said.
In Sarasota County, there are now 297 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, 30 of whom have died. Two of those deaths were reported on Tuesday. Sarasota County has the fifth-most confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in Florida, including 10 deaths tied to long-term care facilities. Sarasota has tested 3,663 people, of whom 8.1 percent have tested positive.
In Hillsborough County, there are 979 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, which account for 6.2 percent of the more than 15,000 people who have been tested. In Pinellas County, there are 632 people who have tested positive, or 5.8 percent of more than 10,000 who have been tested.
Herald staff writers Ryan Callihan and Ryan Ballogg contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 11:17 AM.
