Coronavirus: Florida cities order people to stay home; governor resists

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. ā€“ A normally busy Ocean Drive in Miami Beach is much quieter than usual.

Almost everyone is at home, heeding instructions to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

ā€œItā€™s a ghost town,ā€ Miami Beach resident Dana Grodin said Tuesday morning. ā€œFortunately weā€™re allowed to get exercise.ā€

A mandatory stay-at-home order went into effect at midnight in Miami Beach. Some of Floridaā€™s harder-hit municipalities ordered all their residents to shelter in place Tuesday after Gov. Ron DeSantis argued against a statewide order.

DeSantis also blamed outsiders for potentially spreading the virus, ordering a 14-day quarantine on people flying in from New York and New Jersey.

Miami Beach is among 10 municipalities in Miami-Dade County that have adopted ā€œsafer at homeā€ orders.

ā€œYou got to go to work, you gotta go to your doctorā€™s office, you gotta go get food, we understand,ā€ said Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales. "But itā€™s time to stay home and truly have social distance so we can beat this pandemic.ā€

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he believes last weekā€™s order shutting down all non-essential businesses is enough.

ā€œThese other communities that are sheltering in place, heck, we did that last week," Gimenez said. ā€œWe just didnā€™t call it sheltering in place.ā€

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is calling an emergency meeting Wednesdayto discuss a similar order in his city.

DeSantis said heā€™s not ready for a statewide mandate to stay home. Testing remains limited and has yet to show any cases of the virus in a third of Florida counties.


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