Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis announced on Friday that he is lifting all restrictions placed on businesses in the state to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
“There will not be limitations from the state of Florida,” DeSantis said during a press conference Friday. “I think this will be very, very important to the industry. Some of the local [governments] can do reasonable regulations, but you can’t say no after six months and just have people twisting in the wind.”
Currently, Miami-Dade, Broward and other counties in South Florida have restrictions on bars and restaurants, limiting the number of people they can serve indoors and reducing opening hours.
Under the new guidelines, all state-level restrictions on business activity will be removed. Local governments are forbidden from closing businesses and from reducing restaurant capacity below 50 percent, and are prevented from issuing fines to residents over violations of coronavirus-mitigation protocols.
DeSantis, who has been wrong on virtually everything so far regarding the pandemic says he’s seen no signs of a possible second wave of the coronavirus, but, if that should happen, the state is ready to handle the surge. But, there are no future plans to shut down the state again.
“We’re prepared if we see an increase. We’re not closing anything moving forward. We have the tools in place,” DeSantis said. He’s also hoping that the state can host a “full Super Bowl” in Tampa next February.
