ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ordered anyone in the state who has traveled to the greater New York City area over the past three weeks to self-isolate on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.
Many New York City-area inhabitants own winter or retirement homes in Florida and travel to and from those areas on a regular basis.
“Anybody traveling from the New York City area to the state of Florida, or has traveled in the last three weeks is going to need to self-isolate, and they’re going to need to report the contacts that they’ve had, any close contacts in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said in a televised briefing.
“I think it’s unfair that if people are told to stay in place, and they’re not following that order,” he continued. “People are told to stay in their homes, and they’re following the rules, and yet you have folks coming from the hottest of the hot zones filtering out into the United States.”
Additionally, DeSantis announced Florida’s surgeon general would issue a health advisory warning people 65 years and older to stay inside over the next two weeks.
The elderly and those with underlying health conditions are particularly susceptible to the disease. People over the age of 60 make up 23 percent of Florida’s population, according to the state’s Department of Elder Affairs.
His latest executive order comes after DeSantis said on Monday he would sign an order imposing a two-week quarantine on people traveling to Florida from New Jersey or New York.
“The problem for Florida is we have a lot of interaction back and forth between the New York City area and the state of Florida,” DeSantis said on Tuesday. “So you’ve had people, probably unwittingly at the time, be there within the last couple of weeks and then come to Florida.”
Pressure has mounted on DeSantis to implement a stay-at-home order, similar to what has been done in New York and New Jersey.
He faced criticism last week for his lack of action on crowded Florida beaches amid the pandemic.
The Miami Herald’s editorial board published a scathing op-ed on Sunday that accused the governor of “working overtime to preserve our status as the world’s leading exporter of political comedy.”