MIAMI – During his daily coronavirus briefing Wednesday in Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he was very concerned about the increase in flights from New York’s hot zone to Florida.
DeSantis said airlines struggling through the shutdown were not eager to put a stop to the flights. He said the federal government issued travel bans when the epicenter of the pandemic was in China and when it moved to Italy, but now that it is in New York that hasn’t happened.
“It is just reckless, reckless behavior,” DeSantis said about people who are choosing to travel from New York to Florida as they flee the devastating effects of the outbreak.
DeSantis said Florida residents need to stay at home for the next two weeks and assume everyone around them has the respiratory illness when it comes to social distancing. He also said the state’s priority is to test and to meet the needs of the rising needs of first responders.
DeSantis said Florida’s hot zone is in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. He said the data coming from other counties doesn’t merit a state-wide stay-at-home order.
In a letter he sent to President Donald Trump on Monday, DeSantis reported the response has already cost the state’s taxpayers about $208 million and there is still a need for more federal aid.
“The insufficient medical resources and capacities of medical facilities and the already limited number of qualified medical personnel will only continue to rapidly deplete as the impacts of COVID-19 continue to spread,” DeSantis wrote in a letter sent to Trump on Monday.
DeSantis estimates more than 40,400 people have already lost their jobs in Florida.