A.G. Gancarski
It’s now official: the state of Florida will be under a state of emergency due to COVID-19 through the Republican National Convention.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday made it official with Executive Order 20-166, extending the state of emergency declared in Executive Order 20-52 for 60 days.
20-52 was originally issued in March, at a time when the Legislature was still in Session and coronavirus fears had not reached the general public.
Both orders came at pivotal moments.
The March order was issued just after the Florida House was cleared over fears that five legislators and one staffer had potentially been infected by the coronavirus.
At that point, there were just 14 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the state — 13 residents and one non-resident.
The latest extension came at a time when total case numbers are no longer in the teens, but positive testing rates are. More than 210,000 Floridians have tested positive for the virus since the original order.
The median age of positive tests is creeping back up, now at 40 years of age, suggesting that community spread among younger populations is insinuating its way into more mature demographics.
With the virus clearly not slowing down, questions have emerged for the Governor about the Republican National Convention, expected to be a full-capacity event in Jacksonville in August, when the state will still be under this state of emergency.
DeSantis faced just such a question from POLITICO reporter Marc Caputo on Tuesday, but the Governor kept walking rather than answer it. Similar attempts to get clarity on the RNC question went unaddressed by DeSantis at at least one previous press conference.
Meanwhile, in Jacksonville, coronavirus concerns have impacted planning for the event.
The Mayor suggested that perhaps a full-occupancy convention may not be in the cards after all, given the state still being in Phase 2 reopening, which includes indoor occupancy caps.
“Facilities cannot participate in anything over 50% capacity,” Mayor Lenny Curry said. “That’s where we are right now. So we’re just going to continue to evaluate as we move toward that date.”
For the Republican National Convention, as is the case with schools poised to reopen, sports leagues preparing to relaunch, and businesses attempting to figure out the next move, the waiting game continues.
And for the Sunshine State, the same holds true for the state of emergency.
5 comments
Sonja Fitch
July 7, 2020 at 3:57 pm
Cancel the damn RNC! Dud Desantis, looting Lenny and cockroach Corcoran are damn goptrump fools! Serve and protect! Shut down the state!
Leslie Goller
July 7, 2020 at 4:51 pm
State of Emergency through August yet the RNC convention is still coming and public schools are required to operate 5 days a week!! Who is in charge???? Florida is a runaway train!
Sonja Fitch
July 7, 2020 at 4:57 pm
Cancel the damn RNC! The money goptrump donors are not willing to Bounty up! Putin loving traitor trump is not welcomed in Jacksonville! The scum draft dodger does not deserve to be a guest in our proud military community! But the damn certain dangers our children are being placed is not worth The damn RNC
TaztheSpaz
July 7, 2020 at 6:00 pm
It’s amazing how fearful Democrats are to utilize any tactic to win and Destroy America. Alinsky and Cloward-Piven strategies are visible within failed liberal policies.
So you can say that conservatives once again will save America and redirect us from failure by overcoming and prevailing.
Our forefathers fought the Revolutionary War with extreme odds during a smallpox plague.
You liberals are some soft bitches. American history is written by overcoming an overachieving. Nobody remembers the victim mentality whine.
This is why we cannot locate one Democrat Patriot.
Tracey Arpen
July 7, 2020 at 7:02 pm
If I were posting an idiotic rants like yours I wouldn’t use my real name either. BTW I’m a patriotic American and a retired Lt Col with 24+ years military service. Oh, and a Democrat too,
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