Gov. Ron DeSantis held a COVID-19 briefing in Jacksonville on Tuesday, where he once again touted the rapid tests the state is receiving from the federal government as an effective tool to keep the virus out of long-term care facilities.

What You Need To Know

“We’ve distributed hundreds of thousands of the new rapid tests," DeSantis said. "It’s Abbot labs BinaxNOW."

We learned earlier this month the state is getting an additional 6.5 million of these tests, on top of the 150 million being sent out by the federal government nationwide.

In an effort to find out how many of the first 400,000 tests the state received went to long-term care facilities in the Tampa Bay Area, we requested the distribution list from the Florida Division of Emergency Management. According to that data, about 2,800 facilities statewide should have received a shipment of those tests.

“They’ll be able to do spot testing of the staff or even routine testing of the staff, and they can even use it to help with visitation," DeSantis said.

Here is the breakdown for our viewing area:

Citrus County - 11 LTC facilities

Hernando County - 6 LTC facilities

Hillsborough County - 58 LTC facilities

Manatee County - 17 LTC facilities

Pasco County - 23 LTC facilities

Pinellas County - 75 LTC facilities

Polk County - 30 LTC facilities

State officials also plan to send shipments of the rapid tests to senior communities and is encouraging those interested to email requests to RapidTestsForSeniors@em.myflorida.com.