Quarantining Rick Scott says Florida still ‘open for business’ despite virus

U.S. Senator Rick Scott is quarantining for the second time due to the novel coronavirus, but he remains upbeat about the state’s battle against it nonetheless.

The Senator, appearing on the Fox Business Network Tuesday morning, contended that Florida “absolutely” would be “open for business” even as the state and the country struggle through a third wave of the pandemic.

The Senator contended Florida would be open even as coronavirus case loads rise. Florida has reported upwards of 890,000 cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, with more than 4,600 of them tallied Monday.

“We’re open for business,” Scott told host Stuart Varney. “We’re going to do this safely. We’re wearing our masks, social distancing.”

And, he added, Floridians are isolating if the situation mandates it.

“We’re quarantining like I am because I was around someone who tested positive,” Scott added. “That’s going on in our state.”

Scott has been quarantining for a few days now.

Over the weekend, the Senator from Naples tweeted that he interacted with someone who tested positive on Friday night. As of Tuesday morning, Scott has yet to report a positive test from that interaction, but is still in isolation “out of an abundance of caution.”

The Senator was in Cumming, Georgia on Friday afternoon for a rally on behalf of Senate colleagues David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. The Senator wore a mask for most of the event, except when he was speaking, but the event had nothing to do with his current quarantine.

Neither Perdue nor Loeffler is currently in isolation.

Scott went on in his interview with Varney to sound familiar themes, including a requisite contrast between Florida’s approach under Gov. Ron DeSantis with New York under a familiar foe, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“We’re not going to do what Cuomo is doing. We’re not going to shut down the economy,” Scott said, adding that Cuomo “can’t figure out how to get his economy going. He will kill it again right now.”