Governor Extends Safer-At-Home To Southeast Counties: Coronavirus

MIAMI, FL — Speaking from Southeast Florida Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he's signing an executive order to institute "safer-at-home" mandates for Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Many cities in these counties have already instituted safer-at-home protocols in which residents are told to only leave their homes for essential groceries, medical appointments and banking. His order extends that requirements throughout these counties.

"This just gives us a common set of rules" to provide consistency for residents throughout Southeast Florida, which has 67 percent of the coronavirus cases in the state, said DeSantis.

According to the latest numbers from the Florida Department of Health, there are more than 5,473 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, and there have been 63 deaths. Residents can find city and county total cases listed on the state's website.

“This codifies a set of rules regarding ‘safer-at-home’ in Southeast Florida,” he said. “It gets all four counties operating on the same sheet of music.”

He said this area of Florida is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Florida because of its large number of international travelers. Miami also has a large population of visitors from New York, which has more cases of coronavirus that any other part of state in the country.

While there's been no study, DeSantis said he also suspects the 2020 Superbowl played Feb. 2 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami may have contributed to the increase in coronavirus cases in Southeast Florida.

"With this order, we're going guns blazing, doing all that we can to slow the spreak of COVID-19," he said.

Don't miss updates about coronavirus precautions in Florida as they are announced. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

Over the weekend, Florida set up checkpoints along highways entering the state to halt the flow of people fleeing from New York and other states with a high concentration of infected residents.

The governor briefly touched on the Holland America cruise ship heading from the Panama Canal to Miami with the bodies of four coronavirus casualties on board. He said, rather than allowing the cruise ship to dock at the Port of Miami, he will send medical personnel to the ship to assess the situation. He made it clear that he didn't want Florida hospital beds going to international travelers.

He said 30 percent of the beds in Florida hospitals are open and officials have identified several closed medical facilities that can be made operational.

Additionally, DeSantis said he signed a second executive order allowing retired law enforcement and healthcare personnel to return to duty during the pandemic. Under state law, retired personnel must wait six months before re-entering the workforce. DeSantis' order suspends that requirement.

"We need to have folks who are willing to return to service," he said.

DeSantis said he has obtained more than 2,000 rapid coronavirus tests, which can provide results in 45 minutes. He's sending 1,750 testing kits to the Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County, and 500 will go to North Florida.

He's also requested a supply of the five-minute coronavirus tests that have just been approved by the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration.

With drive-through testing sites already established in Broward County and at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, DeSantis has asked the National Guard to set up a third drive-through site in Palm Beach County, which ranks third in the state for the number of coronavirus cases.