Rep. Donna Shalala warned that Florida might need to close back down amid a recent surge in cases of the coronavirus.
The Florida Democrat joined ABC News’s This Week on Sunday and said local leaders “opened too soon, and they misunderstood what you need to do, or they understand it and they’re not willing to do it.” She went on to call for shuttering nonessential businesses again and re-implementing efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus.
“The real thing we need to do is we need to close down again,” she said. “I said four months ago if we don’t do this right, we’re going to have to close down again. That’s our worst nightmare, and we’re going to have to do that in Florida.”
“Our economy will not come back until we meet this virus at its head and knock it down,” she added. “I care deeply about the economy, but first, I care about human life, and with our hospitals filled … we simply cannot protect the economy if we don’t protect the lives of the people in our community.”
“Absolutely they should be concerned about getting care,” Rep. Donna Shalala tells @MarthaRaddatz about dwindling ICU capacity due to COVID-19 surge in Florida.
“We need to close down again…that’s our worst nightmare and we’re going to have to do that.” https://t.co/BS2kWvi5e7 pic.twitter.com/0HxjrBTZlu
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 19, 2020
Florida is among several Southern states experiencing a recent rise in COVID-19 cases. The state set a record last weekend for daily recorded cases of the coronavirus with the highest single-day increase in cases of any state in the country. Florida has reported more than 330,000 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began and nearly 5,000 deaths from it.
As cases increase across the South, Los Angeles is also eyeing instituting another stay-at-home order to contain the spread.
“I think we’re on the brink of that,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday.
