After her husband was admitted to Reflections Memory Care, Marianne Brand told News 6 he quickly began falling — getting out of his wheelchair and climbing out of his bed. The situation became so alarming that she began staying at the facility around the clock.

A certified nursing assistant from Cocoa was arrested Friday, accused of stealing around $20,000 from an 87-year-old man staying at a Florida retirement home where she worked.

Facilities that don’t comply with the emergency rules could have their licenses revoked or suspended and face administrative fines. Data as of Tuesday showed 4,198 long-term care residents with COVID-19 and 2,448 infected staff members. Lee has maintained for months that the state needs to purchase rapid COVID-19 testing machines and place them at every licensed long-term care facility. Adkins, owner of Dayspring Village and Dayspring Senior Living, has been testing staff members and residents on a monthly basis since March 24. He uses a mobile test provider that travels to the facilities to test staff on site.

That means nursing homes and ALFs account for almost 40% of the state's 1,715 confirmed deaths from COVID-19. People over 65 and those with underlying health conditions are particularly endangered by the disease, making nursing homes especially vulnerable to outbreaks. According to the Florida Health Care Association, a trade group, there are 700 nursing homes and 3,100 ALFs in the state caring for 155,000 people. The governor has also sent National Guard teams to nursing homes around the state to test employees and patients for the virus. She said because the state has given nursing homes and ALFs priority for those supplies, the situation has improved.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – A 95-year-old nursing home patient was killed in Florida after being attacked in his room, police said. According to a news release from Port St. Lucie police, staff members at Tiffany Hall Nursing and Rehabilitation Center called 911 just after midnight Sunday when a nurse walking by a room saw a man sitting on top of the patient’s chest, holding a pillow over his face. TC Palm reported that the nurse shouted for help and the man fled. The patient was dead when police arrived, authorities said. Police set up a perimeter and searched the area with a K-9 unit and the county sheriff’s office helped with a helicopter, but they were unable to locate the culprit.