Gov. Ron DeSantis extends state of emergency order

Image via AP.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has extended Florida’s state of emergency for another 60 days by issuing Executive Order 21-94 — a move that came so close to crunch time, it left some speculating whether he would renew it at all.

The extension continues the original Executive Order 20-52, which was first issued back in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The extension also include new language addressing vaccine passports and schools, stating that the order “is necessary to ensure Florida schools remain open for the remainder of the school year and to protect Floridians from being required to produce a so-called vaccine passport as a condition of participating in everyday life.”

As far as the deadline for extension, the Governor had until the end of Tuesday, April 27, to renew the order facing extension, filed on Feb. 26. His office has made no announcements nor posted an updated executive order on state websites. But Meredith Beatrice in DeSantis’ communications office noted the timeframe the Governor had to make the decision. 

Since March 2020, DeSantis has been extending his original emergency order in 60-day increments.

Declaring a state of emergency activated the state’s emergency operations center and has allowed the state to receive assistance from the federal government. The order has also allowed the Governor to deploy the Florida National Guard to help. 

On Monday, the Department of Health reported 3,513 new known cases of COVID-19 in the state and 66 new deaths related to the pandemic. Since the virus surfaced here last March, a total of 2,212,097 cases have been recorded, including 2,170,655 Florida residents. A total of 35,600 deaths have been tallied by health officials, 34,912 of those Floridians and the remaining 688 visitors who died here.

The latest version of the order continues the declared state of emergency due to COVID-19, and states that “the impact of COVID-19 poses a continuing threat to the health, safety and welfare of the State of Florida and its residents.”

The order also states that as Florida continues to recover, the Governor is “committed to providing all available resources to assist Floridians and local communities with their efforts,” and that the state “continues to implement budgetary response efforts to help Floridians to the greatest extent possible.”

Under the order, state and local agencies are given leeway to take additional precautions to keep people safe from exposure, like implementing mask mandates.

It has also allowed licensed health care workers certified in other states to practice in Florida — expanding the availability of care.

Some feared that by not extending the order, those who are filing for unemployment could be impacted.

On Saturday, the Governor’s Work Search Requirement waiver expired after an extension was not passed. Now, the Department of Economic Opportunity is requiring those filing for unemployment to start showing proof they are searching for a job. 

Currently, tens of thousands of Floridians are still missing all of their payments and many other people are experiencing a variety of issues with the CONNECT system, which shut down April 15.

Those looking to claim payments will now have to show proof they’ve applied for at least five jobs per week in the state’s CONNECT system every two weeks. Those who live in counties with less than 75,000 people only have to prove they’re searching for three jobs per week.

A number of local mask ordinances were also tied to the statewide state of emergency and sunset at its expiration.

Over the past few weeks, the state has continued to report higher cases of COVID-19, averaging around 5,000 to 7,000 daily cases.