UPDATE: Gov. DeSantis now says he spoke in error regarding his “stay-at-home” order for Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties, and that he meant to say that it should continue through mid-April, not mid-May. The mistake lingered for three hours before it was corrected. We updated this story as soon as the error was realized.
If you live in South Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has some bad news for you. Stay at home. He issued an executive order Monday regarding the safety of four South Florida counties he believes will help minimize the spread of the virus across the state.
“We want to win the fight againt COVID-19,” DeSantis said. “We’re going guns blazing, doing all that we can, to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
The order, called “Safer at Home,” requires South Florida residents in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties to isolate at home. South Florida continues to be the area of the state with the most virus cases, with over 1,600 in Miami-Dade and more than 1,100 in Broward.
Those counties represent about 60 percent of all infections in Florida.
The order includes a set of rules to follow and urges people to stay home as much as possible until the middle of May.
“Safer at home is the right move for Southern and Southeast Florida, this is the time to do the right thing and listen to all your local officials. We do this in till the middle of May and then we will see where we are at,” said DeSantis.
On why the issue is so important, DeSantis said that South Florida is the most densely populated part of the state, and with Miami International Airport, it’s an international travel destination.
DeSantis has resisted issuing a statewide order on the grounds that local officials should be allowed to respond to local conditions. He also has argued that some areas of the state have yet to report any infections with the new coronavirus that’s been linked to COVID-19.
The order has not yet been posted by the governor, so the exact wording is not yet known.