Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday announced the creation of a task force designed to examine how and when to begin reopening the economy in Florida as the number of Floridians filing for unemployment surpasses half a million in just weeks.
“Let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing,” DeSantis said on Wednesday, laying out his vision for the task force.
“I want to do is tap into people in elected office, people in business, people are involved in education and all kinds of things and get the best ideas about, you know, what’s the most prudent way to move forward,” he stated, explaining that the Florida health care system has been able to avoid an overwhelming number of coronavirus cases.
“There were some, their hair was on fire. They were really worried about what was going to happen,” DeSantis said, noting that the trend, all things considered, has been “good.”
“I think, really, across the state, I think they are becoming confident that we’ll be able to handle the COVID patients. Clearly, we have not even gotten close to busting the medical system,” he reported.
DeSantis plans to announce the members of his task force this week, stressing that he wants to get “all the best ideas possible” of how to properly move forward.
Current data suggests the curve is flattening in Florida, which had 21,865 confirmed cases as of Wednesday evening.
President Trump has signaled he will support states that choose to take steps to reopen their economies.
“Actually there are over 20 [states] that are in extremely good shape, and we think we’re going to be able to get them open fairly quickly, and others will follow,” Trump said on Tuesday.
However, he emphasized that he is not putting pressure on individual states.
“They know when it’s time to open and we don’t want to put pressure on anybody,” he said. “I’m not putting any pressure on the governor to open.”
The White House is expected to release guidelines this week for reopening the country.
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