Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called his state “God’s waiting room” for senior citizens during a coronavirus briefing.
“Florida is ground zero for the nursing home, we’re God’s waiting room,” DeSantis said. “We have a huge number of facilities, a huge number of residents.”
When he noted that the city of Orlando has 68 COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized, he described the number as “probably a two-hour stretch in Brooklyn” in a jab at the large number of fatalities in New York City.
“If you go back six weeks, there were people saying that Florida was going to be another New York or another Italy,” DeSantis said. “Those have all been proven to be false. Florida’s performed better than anyone predicted.”
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You can watch DeSantis’s remarks in the video below.
People over the age of 60 make up roughly 28 percent of Florida’s population. Seniors are also especially vulnerable to the coronavirus, which according to the most up-to-date statistics, has claimed at least 1,074 lives in the state. Florida has currently recorded 31,528 coronavirus cases.
On Saturday, DeSantis said he is in no rush to lift restrictions on business operations in the wake of the pandemic. Although restrictions expire on April 30, it seems he will extend social distancing requirements through May.
“We’re not doing in-person sports yet, no matter what. That’s just not going to happen in May,” he said. “Another thing in Phase 1, they say movie theaters with social distancing, I’m not there yet on the movie theaters. I think it is an enclosed environment (and) you are much better off being outdoors then in an enclosed environment — that’s just a reality.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
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