Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had resisted issuing a statewide stay-at-home order, but finally gave in on Wednesday.
He announced he would be issuing an order later in the day, just a day after once again expressing reluctance despite being urged to do so by Democratic legislators, newspaper editorial boards and pandemic experts. On Monday, the governor initially said he wanted a stay-at-home order in South Florida through mid-May, but later said he misspoke and meant mid-April.
Now, the new 30-day statewide order will take effect Thursday night at midnight.
“It makes sense to make this move now,” DeSantis said on Wednesday, adding that he had talked with President Donald Trump. The list of essential services will follow guidelines set by the Department of Homeland Security and be similar to those ordered in Miami-Dade County.
Newsweek noted that Florida had been the only state with more than 5,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus that had not issued a statewide stay-at-home order.
A University of Washington researcher cited by the White House expects COVID-19 deaths in Florida to peak at around 136 deaths per day in the first week of May, SFBW reported on Tuesday. That was predicated on “continued and uninterrupted vigilance by the general public, hospital and health workers, and government agencies.”
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A chart on the Florida Department of Health website shows the acceleration of COVID-19 cases in the past week
The Florida Department of Health’s update just before noon on Wednesday reported 6,693 case in the state and 87 deaths.
Miami-Dade County leads the state with 2,202 cases. It is followed by Broward at 1,232 cases and Palm Beach with 567 cases.
Palm Beach County, however, has 16 deaths compared with 12 in Broward and seven in Miami-Dade.
The state has 67,734 tests with 6.955 (10.3 percent) of them being positive.
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