South Florida won’t reopen yet
Gov. DeSantis announces limited plan to open state
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that most of Florida would begin reopening Monday, but South Florida, home to most of the state’s coronavirus cases and deaths, will remain under tighter restrictions for the forseeable future.
“Dade, Broward and Palm Beach are very important to Florida’s future,” DeSantis said. “We want to get them going. I think we have a good path to do it. But it’s going to be on a little bit different timetable than the rest of the state.”
DeSantis unveiled what he’s branding as the “Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step. Plan for Florida’s Recovery” during a televised address and news conference in Tallahassee.
“This current crisis has impacted in one way or another all 21 and a half million Floridians in lifechanging ways,” DeSantis said in remarks that he began delivering in Tallahassee just after 5 p.m.
He said the state would take a step — “small, deliberate, methodical — toward a more hopeful future.”
What’s next
DeSantis said Phase 1 “really tracks” what been put out by President Donald Trump.
Outside South Florida, restaurants and retail establishments that haven’t been open will be allowed to reopen at 25% capacity inside and with dining outside — as long as people observe social-distancing recommendations. Sporting events can resume — without spectators.
Elective surgeries at hospitals will be able to resume statewide.
Face masks should be standard, he said, but people who don’t wear them won’t be fined. Someone
who is jogging and not around other people won’t be expected to wear a mask.
Bars, gyms, hair salons and movie theaters will remain closed. As he previously announced, schools will remain out of session, with online “distance learning” in place, and visits to nursing homes still will be prohibited.
South Florida exclusions
DeSantis said MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are “trending in a positive direction,” but are excluded from the limited openings for now. “I want to get southeast Florida on board. They’re close.”
He said his administration consulted with leaders in the three big South Florida counties, which reopened some outdoor recreational facilities on Wednesday, and they wanted to hold off on Phase 1 reopening for now.
The data explain why South Florida is being governed differently than the state’s other 64 counties. As of Wednesday, Florida Department of Health statistics show that 57.3% of the state’s deaths and 59.5% of the state’s cases are in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. The region accounts for 28.9% of the Florida population.
Jose Szapocznik, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, supported the governor’s decision to maintain restrictions in South Florida.
“I think that’s very wise, because we have a higher density of cases than other parts of the state,” he said.
Szapocznik said the governor’s decision to relax restrictions in other parts of the state appeared to be warranted.
“From what I’ve seen, it seems like a very reasonable approach,” he said. “He’s presented the data to show that we were decreasing the number of cases, we’re decreasing the number of deaths, that we have a huge amount of capacity in hospital beds and ICU units and respirators. So he’s made a good case.”
Medical care
“Our hospitals are ready to reopen,” said Jaime Caldwell, president of the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association.
Miami plastic surgeon Jacob Freiman said after two months of not working, he will perform his first surgery on May 10.
Florida Medical Association President Ronald F. Giffler said in a statement that many patients have had to delay needed treatment. “It is imperative that we not ignore a potential second crisis: a wave of emergencies and fatalities among the people delaying care or going untreated,” he said.
Florida’s path
DeSantis said the situation in Florida never got as bad as some models predicted. He said hospitalizations never got to the point where there was a shortage of beds, the state always had a more ventilators than seriously ill patients required, and the trajectory of new cases is headed in a positive direction.
He said the state meets the so-called “gating” criteria from the federal government, which are thresholds that show positive trends.
“Fear is our enemy,” he said. “We need to focus on facts and not fear.
DeSantis said there is plenty of testing capacity at the eight state-supported sites, and he presented a slide showing five new sites coming online, including War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale. He said the big existing site at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines works well, but it is far away from people in eastern Broward.
He said there is more testing capacity than demand right now, and urged anyone with symptoms, first responders and health care workers, and people who think they may have been exposed to “go ahead and go” to get a test.
He said Florida has been contact tracing “for this whole time,” and said he thinks that’s one reason there haven’t been large outbreaks outside of South Florida.
“The contact tracing is going to continue in the state of Florida. It was always part of our strategy. Very few people were talking about it,” he said.
If positive trends continue, he said he hopes South Florida can soon enter Phase 1, and all parts of the state can reopen more businesses.
Not all businesses are ready to reopen. All of America’s major professional sports leagues have been on hold since March because of the pandemic, with no dates to resume play.
For example, DeSantis — who was captain of the baseball team at Yale University — said he’d like to see major league baseball played before fans, at reduced stadium capacity, in June or July, “if the trends are good.”
Competing priorities
DeSantis is walking on policy and political tightropes, attempting to balance caution from health professionals with a desire by many to get the state’s economy restarted.
With weeks of restrictions and staying at home, Florida has experienced a lower number of confirmed cases and a lower number of deaths officially attributed to COVID-19 than many experts predicted earlier in the spring.
But moving too fast to reopen too much risks a coronavirus spike. DeSantis acknowledged the peril last week, when he appointed the committee to advise him on a reopening strategy. The governor said it would be a disaster for public health and the economy if a rushed reopening meant asymptomatic workers could be back on the job, say at a hotel in the tourist-dependent state, and turned out to be spreading the virus.
Polling shows most Floridians trust health experts and oppose a rushed reopening, but DeSantis also has political imperatives. A larger share of Republicans — and DeSantis patron Trump — want a faster reopening.
Democrats, who have been slamming the DeSantis and Trump administrations, have urged a slower approach to reopening the state, one that prioritizes public health experts.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat who represents most of Palm Beach County, said in a written statement DeSantis’ “decision to keep South Florida home and safe is responsible.”
But Frankel faulted him for “minimizing the loss of life of more than 1,000 Floridians and the seriousness of this pandemic are sad and dangerous. Of course people are afraid. We’re facing a pandemic. We should listen to science and continue social distancing as recommended by healthcare experts.”
Terrie Rizzo, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party and the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, was sharply critical of DeSantis. “More than 1,000 Floridians have died in this pandemic, but you wouldn’t know it listening to Governor DeSantis’ indignant press conference today,” Rizzo said in a written statement.
DeSantis blamed China for the state’s troubles, adopting a line recommended by Republican political strategists looking ahead to the November election, when they fear voters could punish Trump for his response to the coronavirus.
“We did not ask to be put into this situation. This was thrust upon us largely because of the malfeasance of the Chinese communist party. We are where we are. But I think we can get through it, and we can build a foundation,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said he’s experiencing many of the same frustrations experienced by millions of Floridians.
He said his third child, Mamie, born in late March, still hasn’t been held by her grandparents.
And, DeSantis said, he hasn’t had a haircut since February — and he’s wondered how TV pundits manage to look well-coiffed since they’re supposedly not getting haircuts themselves.