Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday said his state has flattened the coronavirus curve without "draconian orders," and praised residents for doing a "great job" that will lead to the state reopening for business as its stay-at-home order expires on April 30.
"We have a great task force for people all over, (including) industries, particularly small business and we are putting together a lot of great ideas for what the next phase looks like in Florida," said the Republican governor on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "You go back six weeks. everybody, particularly in the media, was saying Florida was going to be worse than New York."
But as of Monday night, he said, there were 730 people in ICU units statewide, and hospitals have not been overrun.
"We increased hospital bed space and ICU bed space during the pandemic so there were fewer beds available in February than there are now," he said.
Meanwhile, he said that the state can both fight COVID-19 and get people back to work, and it didn't take strict orders.
"We have been very reasonable with the people of Florida and they have responded," the governor said.
To date, 80,000 coronavirus tests have been done in South Florida, where most of the cases are.
"What they have done, by unlocking high throughput machines, they increased cost per test reimbursement per test by $50 to $100," he said. "(We are) in discussion with some of these labs who can put through a lot of tests in a 24-hour period."
Meanwhile, the governor pointed to a California study that indicates far more people may have had the virus than have been known while indicating the disease is less lethal than thought.
"We want to know how the antibodies are in the State of Florida," said De Santis.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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