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News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It's hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida can help. Our responsibility is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.

Morgan And Morgan Will Sue Nursing Homes Where Residents Died From COVID-19

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
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The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Lawyers representing the families of people who died of COVID-19 have put nursing homes on notice that they plan to sue.

That includes the Opis Coquina nursing home in Volusia County, where 16 residents have died from the new coronavirus.

Lobbyists representing nursing homes and assisted living facilities have asked Florida’s governor for immunity from lawsuits, which he has so far declined to do.

Matt Morgan is an attorney with Morgan and Morgan.

“In every jurisdiction where you live, right now, there’s a big powerful lobby, that is going to your politicians and trying to slide things into legislation in total and complete immunity for anything that they do wrong to kill your mother or father. And that’s wrong,” Morgan said.

An industry group representing nursing homes declined an interview. So far, 776 long-term care residents or staff members have died of COVID-19, according to Florida Department of Health data — more than 40 percent of the overall death toll.

Copyright 2020 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7

Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya works for WMFE in Orlando. He started writing for newspapers in high school. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in 2007, he spent a year traveling and working as a freelance reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Weekly, and working for local news websites in the San Francisco Bay area. Most recently Abe worked as a reporter for the Orlando Business Journal. He comes from a family of health care workers.