FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A person at an assisted living facility where an elderly man passed away a day prior is showing COVID-19 symptoms, according to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials.
7News cameras were outside of the Atria Willow Wood Senior Living and Memory Care facility, at 2855 W. Commercial Blvd., Wednesday morning, when rescue crews arrived on scene.
FLFR officials said one person at the facility was showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus but did not specify if the person is a resident at the facility or an employee. The unidentified person was transported to an isolation facility and will be tested for COVID-19.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed Wednesday afternoon that of the three deaths at the Fort Lauderdale facility, one tested positive for COVID-19, and the two others were negative.
DeSantis also confirmed 19 assisted living facilities in Florida have patients who are experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus, but their locations were not specified.
On Tuesday, the governor confirmed a 77-year-old man, who lived at the facility and had significant underlying medical conditions, died after testing positive for the virus. Family members identified the man as Richard Curren.
Curren is the sixth COVID-19-related death in Florida, and the third death at Atria Willow Wood Senior Living and Memory Care since Friday.
“So many of us are just in shock because he has a way of always bouncing back, always recovering from whatever it was,” Curren’s daughter Tracy Wieder said.
Health officials believe Curren may have been infected by someone who was not showing symptoms. As a result, all employees at the facility will be required to wear masks.
“I think the fear with the one test, the death in Broward, was that was potentially transmitted by someone who was asymptomatic and who was working on the staff,” DeSantis said.
“That illness, he did not bring it into the facility,” Wieder said. “It was brought in by somebody else.”
Curren leaves behind his wife of 57 years, who is now in quarantine with Wieder in Miami.
“If [my mother] is negative, it would be a huge relief. If she’s positive, well, OK, then we know we might have to have some faith, but we can be more diligent about really being really careful with her and any symptoms, so I don’t have to lose both of my parents,” Wieder said. “It’s a sad time in your life when you want your friends and family around, you were in isolation.”
As of Wednesday night, Florida has a total of 328 positive cases. Eighty cases have been confirmed in Broward, while 77 have been confirmed in Miami-Dade.
“It’s everywhere, and everyone needs to take this seriously, and we need to control the spread,” Wieder said. “This thing is more contagious than any of us really truly realize.”
Atria Willow Wood Assisted Living Center houses 220 residents, who have since been isolated.
A spokesperson for Atria Willow Wood Senior Living and Memory Care released a statement reading in part, “We are working closely with [the Florida Department of Health] as well as the CDC to monitor the situation and take additional steps to mitigate any potential spread. Our experienced staff remains on site and has implemented additional quarantine protocols.”
The five firefighters who responded to the assisted living facility and took the patients to treatment are being examined as well.
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