Why Is Florida Reopening? Over 800 New Cases, 20 Deaths As State Begins Reopening

Florida took the first steps in reopening Monday despite state health officials reporting another wave of confirmed cases and deaths from the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials reported another 819 confirmed cases and 20 deaths were reported, bringing the statewide total to 36,987 confirmed cases and 1,399 deaths from coronavirus.

Around 6,110 people required hospitalization from the pandemic, but officials have not reported how many remain hospitalized as of Monday. Officials said the hope is that while new cases will be reported, numbers will begin to plateau or drop if people follow health and safety guidelines.

Despite the new cases and deaths, Florida is pushing forward with reopening under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ three-phase plan. The first phase of the plan under Executive Order 20-112 will allow retail spaces and restaurants to begin reopening with indoor occupancy limited to 25% building capacity. Restaurants with outdoor seating can operate space at full occupancy.

Bars, nightclubs, gyms, and personal care outlets will remain closed for a few more weeks until the next two phases are implemented. DeSantis spoke about the speed at which those businesses will reopen during a visit to a hair salon in Orlo Vista.

“Throughout this whole time, I’ve said I’d rather get it right than get it fast,” DeSantis told reporters Saturday. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to sit on our hands. But we just want to be very thorough about how we’re doing it.”

While the order is statewide, stricter guidelines were laid out for Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, which account for nearly 60% of Florida’s coronavirus cases.

DeSantis also said over the weekend that officials would begin looking into the reported problems around unemployment applications and delays in CARES Act checks being mailed out.

“The system just totally broke,” DeSantis told reporters Sunday during a visit to Daytona Beach’s Halifax Health Medical Center. “It’s not a good system. We’re going to deal with that.”