DeSantis: Florida Flattening the Curve Without ‘Draconian Orders’

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) discussed his state’s efforts to return to normal under the conditions of the coronavirus pandemic.

DeSantis explained signs that the so-called curve was flattening and being done so without the strict measures employed by other states.

“Well, we have a great task force with people from all over the state of Florida and all the different industries, particularly small business,” he said. “And we’re putting together a lot of great ideas for what the next phase looks like in Florida. But, you know, I’ve got to give credit to the people of Florida. You go back six weeks, everybody, particularly in the Acela media, was saying Florida was going to be worse than New York. Obviously, we have a very elderly population. It was constant, people saying that. If you look at what’s happened, that’s not true. You know, New York, for example, has about 25 times the number of fatalities of Florida, even though we have 2 million more people.

“Right now, as of last night, we had about 730 people statewide in the ICU,” DeSantis continued. “People said our hospitals were going to be overrun. We’ve actually increased hospital bed space and ICU bed space during the pandemic. So there were fewer beds available in Florida in February than there are now. So Florida’s flattened the curve. People have done a great job. And I think the — I think we understand that you can do both, you can continue to fight COVID-19, but also get people back to work and have society function again. And, Brian, I never did draconian orders here like you see in some of these other states where a dad would get arrested for — or get cited for taking his daughter to the park. That doesn’t work. We’ve never done that. We’ve been very, I think, reasonable with the people of Florida, and they’ve responded.”

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