lorida reopens: DeSantis lifts state’s coronavirus restrictions

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Fri, 2020-09-25 19:35 — mike kraft

Florida reopens: DeSantis lifts state’s coronavirus restrictions Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Friday removing remaining capacity restrictions on bars, restaurants and retail stores statewide. The order also prohibits local governments from closing businesses or collecting fines related to pandemic mandates. The order takes effect immediately. Gray Rohrer, Austin Fuller, Steven Lemongello orlandosentinel.com

TALLAHASSEE — Florida will no longer require bars and restaurants to operate at less than full capacity, as Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Friday removing all remaining restrictions on those businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The order, which takes effect immediately, also prohibits local governments from closing businesses or collecting fines related to pandemic-related mandates, such as mask requirements — leading to at least one Central Florida county being inundated with calls asking if people no longer have to wear one. But it does allow local authorities to limit restaurant and bar capacity to 50% if they can justify it.

“We are today moving into what we initially called phase 3,” DeSantis said during a news conference in St. Petersburg. “And what that’ll mean for the restaurants is there will not be limitations from the state of Florida. We’re also saying in the state of Florida everybody has a right to work. (Local governments) can do reasonable regulations, but they can’t just say no.”

Democratic state Sen. Linda Stewart called the move politically motivated and questioned whether the timing was right because Florida continues to have a relatively high death and positivity rates compared with the rest of the country. ...

There were 2,815 new cases reported Friday, along with 162 deaths, bringing the totals for Florida since the pandemic began in March to 695,887 cases and 13,915 deaths. There were 2,169 people hospitalized with the coronavirus in the state as of Thursday, down from a peak of more than 9,000 in late July.

But the average daily case count this week has also increased 5% from two weeks ago, the New York Times reported. Florida also has a positivity rate of 4.29% compared to New York’s 1%, though several states in the Midwest were seeing rates in the double digits.

DeSantis also said that while the pandemic isn’t over, society must continue to function even as citizens take measures to prevent its spread.

“The fact that you continue to move forward with the economy, it doesn’t mean that the virus disappears,” DeSantis said. But imposing lockdowns “where society flounders people are out of work, kids aren’t in school - that is not going to work. And that’s not the way forward for us.”

But critics of the move said the prevalence of the virus was still too high for DeSantis to remove all restrictions....

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