Gov. Ron DeSantis defended Florida’s reopening after it was called into question by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
DeSantis, a Republican, responded on Friday to Fauci saying that Florida “jumped over a couple of checkpoints” to reopen early as the state has seen a massive uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.
“I think there was really no justification to not move forward,” the governor said at a news conference, according to Newsweek. DeSantis said that there was only less than a 5% positivity rate for coronavirus tests when the state reopened in May.
“This is a virus that has a five-day incubation period,” DeSantis said. “So, it wouldn’t take six weeks before you started seeing something if [reopening] were the cause [of the surge].”
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted during a podcast interview on Thursday that some states reopened too quickly.
“Despite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly,” Fauci said. “Certainly, Florida … I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints.”
Fauci also hinted on Thursday that states with major coronavirus outbreaks might need to consider shutting back down. Some Democrats have already taken steps in that spirit.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that a new stay-at-home order might be issued if coronavirus infections continue to increase. On Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an order requiring businesses to deny service to those who don’t wear face masks.
There have been more than 3.2 million confirmed cases of the virus in the United States and at least 134,500 associated deaths.
