Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence discuss coronavirus response

Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to meet Friday with Vice President Mike Pence in West Palm Beach to discuss efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak, the Governor’s Office announced Friday morning.

There are no confirmed cases in Florida but there have been reports of patients being tested for the virus in the Sunshine State. On Thursday DeSantis and his administration declined to release any information on how many people have been tested or isolated and showing symptoms of the COVID-19 disease while undergoing treatment, or where they were. At least one patient in Orlando was tested and it came back negative.

Florida remains on high alert and has created a webpage to share information, but the Governor said state law bars him from giving the public more information.

On Wednesday President Donald Trump appointed Pence to be the nation’s coronavirus “czar” overseeing the federal government’s response to the disease that is showing signs of spreading worldwide from its initial massive outbreak in China.

Worldwide there have been more than 83,000 confirmed cases and 2,800 deaths from the disease. Panic is beginning to emerge in some quarters, including in financial sectors. Overnight into Friday, global stocks continued to plummet, led by a nearly 1,200-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Thursday. Elsewhere, travel plans and tourism and travel activities are being curtailed, such as the Walt Disney Co.’s announcement that it would temporarily close its Disneyland parks in Tokyo. and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints announcing it was canceling its worldwide conference set for Salt Lake City in early April.

Those ramifications play large in Florida, where tourism and convention travel are huge and could be hit even if the virus does not show up in the Sunshine State. The state’s vulnerability to the virus itself is increased both by the huge travel sector and, with Florida’s large retirement population, by the virus’s tendency to hit elderly people particularly hard.

Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez will be joining DeSantis and Pence for the 3 p.m. meeting at the Palm Beach International Airport.

On Thursday The Governor and Surgeon General Scott Rivkees assured Floridians the state is doing what it needs to do to be prepared.

“If there are individual cases or linked cases, our strategy will be to make sure these individuals first have the medical care they need. And that they are isolated so they cannot transmit this virus to others,” Rivkees said. “However, if there are multiple other unlinked cases where there appears to be widespread COVID-19, community-based strategies will be implemented, and this will involve avoiding group activities and group meetings.”