TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will begin the early stages of reopening Monday, excluding Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
DeSantis said the state will be guided in this process by certain principles: public health and safety, protection of the vulnerable, health care system readiness, economic recovery, protection of civil liberties and more.
“We need to focus on facts and not fear,” DeSantis said as he announced his SAFE. SMART. STEP-BY-STEP PLAN on Wednesday.
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According to DeSantis, state gating criteria includes cough-associated admissions, influenza-like illness visits, the COVID-19 declining rate trend, new COVID-19 case positivity rate trend and crisis care availability.
Part of the strategy for phase 1 of the reopening is to expand testing, including mobile labs, DeSantis said.
Here’s what phase 1 includes:
- Distance learning continues for the state’s school districts
- No visitors at nursing homes
- Elective surgeries can resume
- Restaurants can open with new capacity rules with social distancing observed
- Retail can operate at 25% indoor capacity
- Bars, gyms, hair salons will remain closed
- Vulnerable people should stay home
- Social distancing remains in effect for all
- Avoid groups of more than 10 people
- Face masks are recommended
DeSantis said there will be three phases of Florida’s reopening. He said the next steps include maintaining hospital bed capacity, monitoring COVID-19 test positivity rate and maintaining the benchmarks of the SAFE. SMART. STEP-BY-STEP PLAN.
DeSantis was asked if he would consider a lockdown again and he said he would look to see if there was something being done that sparked an outbreak.
FAQs for Phase 1: https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Exec-Order-20-112-FAQs-1.pdf
Under phase 1 of Florida’s reopening plan retail shops will be able to open their shops again come Monday but at only 25% capacity.
8103 Clothing in Springfield is one of those stores that gets to open it’s doors again.
Although the owner, Mark Braddock, says he will be taking precautions to ensure everyone stays safe.
Donald Wiggins, President of Heritage Capital Group, agrees with the staged approach to reopening the state but says it’s not a total win money wise.
Wiggins says, “The ones that do come back in the early stages they’ll just lose less money they won’t become profitable until they can get to 60% or more capacity so at 25% that will help.”
Braddock says now is the time to support local businesses because despite getting the chance to open their doors again, many won’t even start to recover for months.
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