South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Pence, DeSantis urge mask use
Officials call for Floridians to act responsibly
The City of Margate took its Fourth of July parade to its residents by winding through dozens of neighborhoods so crowds didn’t have to line the usual parade routes and risk COVID-19 contagion.
Florida is better prepared now than in past months to treat patients stricken with the new coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday as the state recorded a record-breaking milestone of more than 10,000 infections in a single day.
Pence said he wanted to assure Floridians “that as we see the rising cases, not only in this state but across the Sun Belt, that we’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure that our extraordinary health care workers have the resources and the support and the supplies.”
At a news conference Thursday, Pence joined Gov. Ron DeSantis to urge the public, especially young people, to wear a mask over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Pence said while he knows young people, who have a “strong, independent streak,” want to socialize over the holiday weekend and that the risk for younger people is lower, he warned that people should be responsible.
“No younger American would ever want to put at risk a grandmother or a grandfather, a mom, a dad, an elderly neighbor or a friend — by inadvertently exposing them to the coronavirus.”
Pence also touted DeSantis’ leadership as the state saw the record-breaking increases. He praised the governor for the creation of 5 million new jobs and his efforts to repair the economy.
In light of the increasing numbers, Pence said that Florida can count on having support from the government and that it is still possible for businesses to reopen while ensuring the health of Americans.
“The economic comeback that’s underway is a demonstration that we don’t have to choose between opening up America and the health of our people,” Pence said. “We can do both, and that’s the challenge that we face today across the Sun Belt.”
Pence also said that about 13,000 hospital beds and 5,500 ventilators are available across Florida were bits of good news for the state and said 34,000 viles of remdesivir — an experimental antiviral medicine used to treat coronavirus patients — arrived Wednesday.
“We’re in a much better place than even two months ago to be able to treat people who’ve contracted the coronavirus,” Pence said.
When asked about his concern about the virus spreading over the holiday weekend, Pence said his trust lies with each governor to make the right decisions, he said.
“We’d leave it to the governor for any decisions he had,” Pence said, and once again encouraged people to practice “good hygiene” over the holiday weekend.
“We can slow the spread, and we can flatten the curve,” Pence said.
DeSantis said Floridians are safer from the spread of the coronavirus in outdoor spaces.
“We’ve had people fishing, boating, golf, beach,” DeSantis said. “And we’ve not had outbreaks tied to those things.”
With the Republican National Convention scheduled to take place in Jacksonville at the end of August, Pence said he has heard “very sophisticated plans to make sure it’s a safe and healthy environment” at the convention, which is expected to draw in thousands.
“But our job right now is to do everything in our power to support the efforts of your governor and the people of Florida to bring these numbers down,” Pence said. “And we believe we can.”