Florida's Covid-19 surge shows the state's reopening plan is not working

[marmar]

Florida’s Covid-19 surge shows the state’s reopening plan is not working
As counties end the second week of Governor Ron DeSantis’ ‘safe, smart, step-by-step’ policy, the state marks a record high in daily cases

Richard Luscombe in Miami
Sat 20 Jun 2020 06.00 EDT


(Guardian UK) It has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.

“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” DeSantis, a keen Trump ally, added.

This week, however, it became clear that the Republican governor’s garden of roses is wilting fast in the face of a resurgent virus.

A period that began with Florida’s daily record of new cases below 1,700 saw eight consecutive days above that figure, five of them topping 2,000 and both Thursday and Friday seeing the highest numbers of all: 3,207 and 3,822 cases, respectively, eclipsing the previous recorded high by more than 35%. ...............(more)

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/florida-covid19-surge-reopening-governor-desantis-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR3taN8EZ2hFUfiW6oNui37DOaqV3LPAa_9rDPuOfrYCiwEqKtTOwOWHoio

[soothsayer]

1. Hmmm, so hiding the numbers didn't work?

Beyond reckless