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Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said on Monday, “There’s no need to be fearful.”
DeSantis is encouraging face masks and social distancing in his state, but he has not issued a state-wide mandate. He is also insisting that schools open on August 24, an effort that has encountered pushback.
On Monday, DeSantis held a press event at a COVID-only nursing facility near Miami International Airport. According to Samantha J. Gross, a reporter for The Miami Herald, reporters were not told that COVID positive patients were present in the building.
When Gross questioned the DeSantis team about holding a press conference in a building where patients were present, she tweeted that she was told that “patients are not on this floor.”
According to CNN, DeSantis said on Monday that the record-breaking numbers in positive coronavirus cases can be attributed, in part, to an increase in the number of tests being performed in the state.
“There have been way more infections than documented cases,” he said. “But it’s not really evidence that it’s more prevalent.”
According to The Miami Herald, the governor acknowledged that the virus never subsided in his state. He said that, in fact, people infected with coronavirus “may be 10 times as many” as confirmed cases.
DeSantis praised The Villages retirement community which spans parts of Lake, Sumter, and Marion counties for its proactive testing. The Villages was the site of a video where a man was seen chanting “white power!” in a video that was later posted to Twitter by President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: 11-year-old boy becomes youngest patient to die of coronavirus in Florida
The Florida governor is in his first-term. A staunch Trump supporter, DeSantis has echoed the president’s sentiments that the increase in positive tests is related to an increase in testing and that the virus in his state is mainly impacting younger adults.
“The message for our elderly population is to avoid crowds and minimize contact outside the home,’’ DeSantis said. “This virus is circulating more among people in their 20s and 30s.”
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