FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Rescue crews have transported three additional people from a senior assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale after they showed symptoms related to the coronavirus.
The transports come a day after one person was taken out of the facility to be isolated and tested for COVID-19. The precautions are due to the death of a 77-year-old man at the facility on Tuesday who tested positive for the virus.
Family members identified the deceased as Richard Curren, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he had underlying health conditions.
“So many of us are just in shock because he has a way of always bouncing back and always recovering from whatever it was,” Curren’s daughter Tracy Wieder said.
In an effort to protect the elderly population, DeSantis is making it mandatory for staff working in nursing homes to wear masks at all times to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“The fear with the one test and death in Broward was that it was potentially transmitted by someone who was asymptomatic,” he said.
7News cameras captured Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue crews responding to the Atria Willow Wood Senior Living and Memory Care facility, located at 2855 W Commercial Blvd., once again Thursday morning.
It remains unclear if the patients transported are residents at the facility or employees.
“It’s everywhere and everyone needs to take that seriously and we need to control the spread,” Wieder said.
The center houses 220 residents, who have been isolated from each other since Tuesday.
The test results are still pending for the patient transported from the facility on Wednesday.
Three people have recently died at the assisted living facility, but only one of them is linked to the coronavirus. DeSantis confirmed the two other patients who died tested negative for COVID-19.
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