Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Coronavirus Briefing March 25

Ron DeSantis: (00:00)
… But this is almost 200,000 square feet of climate controlled warehouse space. Also, almost 20,000 square feet of logistics and command level operations offices, conference rooms and supports area. Today this is going to be running 24/7. It’s been making a lot of deliveries around the state, today it’s going to be round the clock until we get on the other side of this and so there’ll be employees here nonstop. The National Guard has been great in assisting us with what we’re doing. This response is very heavily dependent on a lot of key medical supplies and so these things like the N95 mask so that healthcare workers are protected. We’re also distributing them to nursing homes and assisted living facilities so that any staff that comes into contact with our elderly residents is wearing a mask and we can mitigate any transmission in those centers and that is really important. So we are going to have how much probably by within the next week. How many masks do you think will have been-

Speaker 1: (01:05)
Well over a million.

Over a million N95 masks. We’ll have millions more over the weeks after that. This is very cut throat right now. I mean the distributors, most of this stuff’s being directed to New York City because of what’s going on there, but Jared is doing a good job of getting a lot here for the state of Florida so when that stuff comes in, it’s distributed out to the counties, the emergency operations outfits in the counties and then they’re able to work with local government, the hospitals, whoever may need some of this and so we understand that’s important for healthcare workers. Personal protective equipment is probably the number one issue. There’s people just look and see, okay we only have so much. Anytime one of these people, a patient comes in that may be infected, they’ve got to wear the PPE because if they don’t and they’re exposed, then they have to self-isolate for 14 days.

But not just that, anyone they had close contact with, particularly their coworkers will have to self-isolate for 14 days. And so a lot of hospitals are rightfully concerned about ending up with a lot of their key people in self-isolation. So we want to avoid that and we want to give folks the ability to protect themselves. Obviously we also don’t want them to get infected as well. So sending this stuff out is very significant. We’ve also done everywhere has “testing kits”, but what is in short supply is the collection swab to take the sample, so the state labs can run the test. We have other CLIA certified labs throughout the state of Florida who can run the tests. We just need to have enough collection swabs to be able to get the sample and then send it to the labs. So we have, more trickling in every day.

Again, a lot of the supply being distributed to New York City or diverted to New York City, but that’s something that’s important. So the site today that you’re seeing people go through at the Orange County Convention Center, that was a partnership. That’s the federal government providing supplies and then stayed in local administering it. The federal government only processes 250 swabs a day out of those sites. So just so people know that’s their rule. We did a site down in Broward County with the National Guard and Memorial Healthcare. We got it up to about 750 a day and that’s been going on for many days trying to get more test results. The test results are important because one, people are antsy and this is an invisible enemy. We don’t, there’s not a lot, we don’t know about it. If someone has symptoms, particularly those who are 65 and older, who have a serious underlying medical condition, they want to know.

So this is an easy way for people to have access to a test and go through. And then most of the tests, 90%, even amongst people who are symptomatic and amongst people, most of these tests are given to people who tend to be older and symptomatic and even with that, 90% of the tests come back negative. And so, but I think people, it’s good for their peace of mind to be able to see that and know what’s going on. We, in the state of Florida, have asked all seniors 65 and older and anybody with a serious underlying medical condition to stay at home. This group of individuals are the ones who suffer the worst consequences if they contract the virus and obviously people have talked about the elderly, but an underlying medical condition, if you have some of these conditions like diabetes and some of the other things, lung problems, you could be 30 years old or 40 years old, but that underlying condition, it doesn’t react well if you get infected by the virus.

And so it’s not just elderly, it’s also a serious underlying medical condition, and our recommendation and our public health advisory is to stay at home for the next two weeks. We’ll see how the data comes in and see what it’s looking like and obviously be able to reassess. But that’s really the best way that we can prevent bad outcomes here in the state of Florida. And if you’re somebody just in the general public, but particularly in those groups, just assume as you’re, whatever you’re doing, anyone you come in contact with potentially could have it. And so keep a safe distance from people, wash your hands and just understand that this is not a virus like a measles where it can affect 10, 12 people, you know very easily. This is one that really, if you’re in close contact, that’s when you’re more vulnerable to it. And so avoid crowds, avoid close contact with people who may end up and assume some people may have had the virus.

We’ve also done all the CDC mitigation measures statewide. Those are pretty sweeping mitigation measures. And we did that as part of the president’s 10 day or 15 days to stop the spread. And then different communities have done additional mitigation measures. South Florida is basically down to essential businesses. Everyone else is staying at home. I know here in central Florida, they’ve done something similar and we’ve supported working with the local communities to apply an approach that makes sense for there. We have other parts of the state where you still have just sporadic cases and we still do the containment measures and we still do other mitigations, but that approach will be different. And also say, in terms of the challenges that we’re facing right now, I think people realize that the kind of the epicenters of this thing has shifted.

First it was Wuhan, China, then it went to Italy and now the epicenter worldwide really is New York City. And so we’re really rooting for New York to get through it. We hope that they’re able to keep people in good health. Obviously they have a lot of cases. But what’s happened is, and it’s a problem for Florida, is once the shelter in place was issued, people started fleeing the city and they started getting on flights and going places all across the world, the United States I should say, but many of those flights are here in Florida. So just as an example, you go back to March 17th, flights from the New York City area to Orlando, there were zero flights. The 18th, one flight, 19th, one flight. The 20th, nine flights because the order had been announced, not enforced. But then once you get beyond that, starting March 21st and each day, 29 flights to Orlando, 38 flights, 40 flights, 44, 26, so that’s a lot of traffic of people from the top hot zone being brought into Florida’s communities.

And so once we saw that these flights were, this uptick, I issued an executive order requiring everybody arriving from the New York City area to self-quarantine for 14 days. We have National Guard and some other health folks at the airports. All these folks are having, they have to provide information. They have to provide a place where they’ll be self-isolating and that is enforceable under the executive order, so they could face adverse consequences. My sense is most people will want to self-isolate. I think they want to listen to directives, but in case they don’t, we’re going to have an ability to deal with it. But I also know when I talk with Dr. Burks about this, this virus has been circulating very widely in New York City for certainly weeks and maybe more than that. And so I’ve also issued an executive order that any Floridian, anybody in Florida right now who has been in New York City area for the last three weeks, should self-isolate and should identify any people.

… should self isolate and should identify any people in Florida that they had close contact with. And let them know that they had come from the hot zone, and that these folks should check their symptoms. At the end of the day, we’ve got 21 million people plus here, got a lot going on. We’re working diligently across the state to be able to win this battle. This makes it more difficult, when you have more people flooding in, when they were given a stay at home, a shelter in place order. So please, please, if you’re one of those people who’ve come from the hot zone, Dr. Fauci said yesterday, you have a much higher chance of being infected coming out of that region than anywhere else in the country right now. So please, you need to self isolate, that’s the requirement in Florida. And if you do that, then I think that we’ll be able to work and keep our current residents safe. And the White House is also on board with this.

The Vice President issued directions about, regardless of where you’re going, if you’re leaving the New York City area, to make sure you’re self isolating for 14 days. And so that’s very, very important. So we have this Orange County center here that you’ll have people … I was visiting earlier, people are going through, Guard did a great job. We also have some of the folks that DEM has procured in terms of nurses and medical technicians who are working on a contract basis. Some of these people are from other parts of Florida, some of them from other States, and they’re here to be able to help us with the needs here going forward, we also have testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Dade County. As soon as we get enough collection swabs, we’re probably going to open one up at the Marlins Ballpark down in Miami Dade. Duvall County has a test site at the Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium. It’s run very well.

And then Broward Memorial testing site in conjunction with the Florida National Guard in my office. We opened that last week, and it’s been doing about 700 to 750 swabs a day. So that’s very, very important for folks down in Broward who have … we’ve seen community spread there, but then now we also have people flying in, and we think that that’s going to exacerbate it. And so it’s really important to be able to identify the people … have them isolate and try to blunt the spread of this thing. And then finally we have a test site at the Villages here in Central Florida, and it’s in conjunction with UF Health. UF Health is doing a great thing. They are doing typical clinical swabs for people that may have symptoms, but they’re also doing a research project. So it’s going to be more random testing to try to figure out how widely dispersed this virus may be.

Nobody really knows whether people can acquire the virus, and really not even know it and then pass it on to other people. So how many people out there who get it are just without symptoms and never even think about it? And then if that’s true that they can do that, are they contagious in that point? So they’re going to be looking at all those, and they’re going to try to get a handle on how widespread would this be in a place like the Villages. Now they are doing all the social distancing, the restaurants are closed, everything. But that was a very active community, and so it’ll be interesting to see. But that helps us inform on some of the policy in terms of what we’re doing here. So we continue to work hard on all this. I think right now if you look at the total number of cases, you have a strong number, maybe not a majority, but certainly close in Southeast Florida and the three Southeast Florida counties, Broward, Miami Dade, and Palm beach.

And that’s something that we’re looking at very closely. Particularly now if a new people are coming in, who may be seeding additional infections in those areas and other parts of Florida. And with that, I’m going to let Jared Moscowitz given update on some of the other logistical efforts that are being undertaken by the State of Florida. But the message is, I think, just continue everyone just working hard and staying safe. If you’re 65 or older, if you have a serious underlying medical condition, staying at home is what the state of Florida is recommending for you. And if you do that, and you limit close contact with people, you’re going to have a really, really good chance of coming out of this thing all right. And for everybody else who’s out during the fight, particularly our healthcare workers, our first responders, I thank you for working very hard. I can tell you, in Tallahassee, everyone’s been working seven days a week, no rest. And I know that’s true in all these places throughout the state of Florida, so you have my gratitude for what you’re doing. Jared.

Jared: (13:53)
Governor, thank you. Thank you for coming to the SLRC, which has been the warehouse that we’ve run mostly hurricane missions out of. In fact, we’ve been retooling the warehouse now for the last several days, moving out hurricane supplies so that we could make more room obviously for health care and health supplies as this obviously is a new mission. Governor, it’s because of your direction and your leadership with the division, that early investments made early on in your term allowed us to expand our logistical operations by A, expanding our team, B, investing in employees, but also the fact that we were able to get a Logistics Chief and award a Logistics Contract, so that we could have vendors in the EOC making sure that Florida is a priority. And you’re seeing, that’s why we were able to make orders of these products over three and a half weeks ago, and those products, those commodities are coming in on a rolling basis.

Jared: (14:52)
And so we are starting to really turn the tide now, and get around the corner on getting this PPE in, get it out and rolling. We have over 5,000 mission requests, and those are being filled on an ongoing basis in conjunction with our partners at Florida Health, making sure obviously that we’re serving the most critical needs first in hospitals, and nursing homes, and ALS and first responders, obviously that are running down to a last couple of days of PPE. So we’ve ordered 7.8 million N95 masks. We’ve asked the Federal Government for 2 million from the Strategic National Stockpile. And thankfully, the Federal Government has pushed a good deal of product from the SNS here to help fill gaps, until our vendors could start getting things in from manufacturing plants around the country in and out of the country, quite frankly. We’re flying stuff in from all over the place.

Jared: (15:43)
So you’re talking gowns and gloves and booties and Tyvek suits. You’re talking about the 2,000 ventilators we’ve ordered, the 5,000 ventilators we’ve asked for the Federal Government. In the other room, we have hospital beds that are coming in. We’ve ordered 3,000 of those. We’ve ordered 150 ICU beds. So this is a massive basically medical operation, making sure that while we don’t necessarily have that need today, making sure that we’re ready to have that need in the future. A lot of people think emergency management in the State of Florida is just hurricanes, but all of our emergency managers are around the state and all these different counties know that we have a lot more responsibilities. And we got to be thinking ahead. It’s why actually today the Army Corps is out there doing assessments for us, looking at old hospital buildings, old hospital wings, trying to figure out which ones we can bring online to add bed capacity.

Jared: (16:37)
We have field hospitals that we’ve deployed to have a gap measure before that we can bring those new hospitals online. And so I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank Florida Health. And I want to thank all of the DEM Florida CERT people that are here helping run the warehouse. As you heard the Governor say, we’re going to 24 hours a day. We actually had to get 50 18 wheelers and load them up with all the hurricane supplies to get it out of the warehouse. And those are being kept in another location, so that we can increase space here. So we really appreciate all of their efforts. It’s really been a team effort. So, Governor, thank you.

All right. Well, thanks Jared. I also want to thank Mayor Demings and everyone in Orange County for all their hard work. This is a very dynamic and vibrant place. It’s a little different when Disney is not going and things of that nature. But we’ll get back there. So I want to thank the Mayor for working hard. I also want to thank the Sheriff for all his hard work. This is a little bit different mission for law enforcement than some of the other things. I know we work closely with the hurricanes and things like that, but it’s a very important mission. And I know they’re working very hard to be able to get it right. So, thank you. And with that, happy to take some questions.

Speaker 2: (18:00)
How are these supplies going to get to the people who need them? With all due respect, [inaudible 00:00:03], and I’m not going to speak for the Sheriff, but I imagine those folks need masks out there. When are these supplies going to get to the people here?

Well, so with the masks, I think the priority with the masks are the health care workers and then the nursing homes and ALFs. I think it’s good if law enforcement is able to do it, but not every Sheriff’s deputy will need it, it depends on the mission. So as soon as they’re get, Jared puts them out to the various counties. I think we do look to see population and try to figure out what the need would be in terms of different capacities to do. But yeah, it’s a very, very urgent priority.

And when we started this, Jared, he ordered all this stuff, we started getting stuff in and then the crunch happened. You’ve never seen a stronger crunch on wanting medical supplies in American history. I mean, this was it and obviously you had some places that were flaring up like Washington State and, later, New York City. So we’ve had to compete with that. But as we get these masks and we’ll be getting many million over the next hopefully week or two, certainly within the next week, we should have thousands more. Their directive is to get it out, get it to those emergency operators so that they are able to work with their communities to use it. Yes sir.

Speaker 3: (19:21)
Governor, you’re standing in a County, where a Stay at Home order is about to go into effect, a member of your own cabinet calling for a statewide Stay at Home order. What would you say to people who are seeing this patchwork quilt [inaudible 00:19:30] across the stage and seeing mixed messages and what [crosstalk 00:19:36]

It’s not a mixed message. Dr. Burkes yesterday said what a thoughtful, data driven approach Florida has had. Dr [Fowchee 00:19:44] said not every instrument is appropriate in every population in the country. And so we have a situation here where we obviously have outbreak in Southeast Florida, so they’ve gone to a Stay at Home. I work with them on that. We issued some of the orders to harmonize Palm Beach and Broward County and then obviously the Central Florida counties work together.

And I think that that’s fine, but I also think there are certain parts of the state where you have more sporadic cases and to order someone not to be able to earn a paycheck when them going to work is not going to have any effect on what we’re doing with the virus, that is something that I think is inappropriate. I talked with the mayor of Jacksonville and I said, “Look, I’m willing to work with you on whatever. If you want to work with your surrounding counties, if you want to go that route, let me know.” And he just didn’t think that it made sense given the circumstances. And so that’s right.

Understand, when you do some of these things, people respond different ways and you got to think about what the second order effect is. Clearly when New York did shelter-in-place, that caused thousands and thousands of people to flee. And so that’s going to make it more difficult I think nationwide for us to be able to get a grip on this stuff. But you look at California, they were ordered not to go to work and so you look, they’re out partying, they’re at beaches and stuff. You probably are less dangerous just driving your car, going to the office than being with crowds of hundreds of people. So you just got to think it through. But I’ve supported the local things and it’s a more surgical approach, but it also is mitigating any damage that would be done for blunt instruments being applied in places throughout the state where it wouldn’t be appropriate.

Speaker 4: (21:26)
Governor, many people here in Central Florida have-

Speaker 3: (21:28)
[crosstalk 00:21:28] are you going to handle people not flying but potentially driving into the state and [crosstalk 00:21:34].

It’s a tough question. It’s a tough issue because we could do set up some checkpoints and stuff and say, “Okay, you need to… Did you come from New York? Where’d you come from?” The problem is, is that that requires putting people there and it requires a process which will then clog up the ability to get supplies in, to get people to restock the grocery stores. So we think you got to just have the lanes of commerce open. Everything’s closed for people right now. And so they need to be able to get food. They could go through a drive through, they could do takeout, they could go to the grocery store. That’s really what they have. If that stuff starts to be depleted, then this is very, very difficult to be able to sustain. And so I think it’s just logistically speaking difficult.

However, anybody who’s driving in, it’s not just the flights, you are required if you’re coming from the New York City area to self isolate for 14 days and that does require penalties if you don’t. So we would urge everybody who’s coming in, if you’re coming in… Actually we would urge everyone, just follow the directive of your state. Don’t defy it. Of course, tens of thousands have defied it and so we’re ending up in a situation where we’re having to try to pick up some of those pieces, but you need to self isolate for 14 days if you’re coming out, particularly of that New York City area.

There are cases throughout the country, but you look at some of these places and there may be 40, 50 cases and a really large Metro area. That’s something you deal with, but you can’t look at that and say, “This is rampantly spreading in the community.” In New York City, they’ve brought it on the subways, all this stuff, it’s pretty clear this thing has been passed around there for weeks and weeks at a minimum. So anyone that’s been there, you have a shot to be able to bring that somewhere else. And so Florida, I think we’re dealing with it the most, but we’re not the only one who’s dealing with it. And I think other States are going to have to deal with it as well. I spoke with the President about it this morning and he understands. The Vice President as we said yesterday issued issued the same warning about self isolation and we need to do it. What purpose is all this stuff serving if you’re going to have people just do what they want, be reckless and then cause problems for other communities?

Speaker 4: (23:49)
Governor, many people here in Central Florida kind of feel like your focus has been on South Florida where the most cases are, but also protecting some of those communities that don’t have any cases. And we’ve kind of fallen in the middle here. So how much of a decision-

How so if it could help protecting communities that don’t have any cases? We’ve spent very little time on any of those. Our resources have been driven by the facts and fortunately, you’ve not had as many cases in Central Florida. Knock on wood, I would not have expected that to start because anything that happens in the world, if there’s an ailment out there, it’s going to end up in Orlando somehow because of all the international travelers. So testing has expanded here. We’re obviously working to do it even more, but I’ve spoken to some of the hospital folks and even some of the sickest of the sick who are testing, very few are testing positive.

So we’re ready to help. But right now, you clearly have an outbreak in places like Broward and Dade County and Palm Beach now and I think most of those flights are going to that part of the state as well. So those folks, they’re going to need to do it. So we very much will be helping Central Florida if we can. But I think part of the reason you haven’t seen as much is because I think the folks in Central Florida have heeded the warnings that people have said. I think that they’ve done a good job of practicing some of these social distancing measures. Some of the things that they’ve done locally I think had been effective.

We did all the stuff that the CDC said, even in places that didn’t have community spread, we did statewide those restrictions. So you have the restaurants, you have the bars, you have all these different things. The idea is to try to reduce density and reduce crowds as much as you can and I think part of the reason that Central Florida’s done a little bit better is because there’s a lot of people here but they’re not as densely packed. They are a little bit more spread out. But yeah, no, this is an important part, the State, big part of our plan, but we’ve got to look where the facts take us. If we start to see indications here, you’re going to definitely see more assets being deployed.

We set up a field hospital in Broward County. We don’t have anyone in it yet because the hospitals haven’t faced a surge yet. But we’re looking at the numbers and thinking, “Okay, if that happens, that may be a place where it happens.” We’ve got another one in Dade. We’ve identified other facilities that could have overrun of folks and so that’s important. But then I would also say we did one of the most innovative testing projects anywhere in the country right here in Central Florida with our villages site. Obviously, they’re going to do clinical, but a lot of that’s going to be for research purposes and that’s the type of data that can help us. You talk about some of these orders about saying this, this, there’s really no data to support it, it’s just people say to do it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little bit more data so that we know exactly how this virus may be operating, particularly in some of those communities?

Speaker 2: (26:44)
[inaudible 00:08:44].

Well, that’s a federal decision. I raised concerns about these New York flights about two weeks ago because you could see what would end up happening. As you might imagine, I think a-

… And see what would end up happening. As you might imagine, I think a lot of the airlines have been taken it and I think they wanted to keep as many flights going as possible. And so I think that there was just a political back and forth there. But it does make no sense. You’re telling people, if you live in some random town somewhere that you must be imprisoned in your home. Don’t leave your home, don’t do it. But yet people are riding the subway in New York City. People fly all over the place from some of the hot zones. I mean, really? How does that make any sense if we’re trying to contain this thing?

So some of these measures, I think, are more symbolic, where people can say they’re doing something. But when you let outlets like that, then that’s not really solving the problem. And those flights, I think, have really been… And I’m not saying you can’t have a flight anywhere in the country, but as soon as this happened in Wuhan, the flights from China were turned off. As soon as Italy began having the outbreak, they shut off the flights from Italy. And then all of Europe, when Europe started getting the outbreak. So we have an even bigger outbreak within our own country, in the New York City area and yet the flights have accelerated. So we can’t do it in the state level, but what I did do, is we did put in the screening. We’re going to have people self isolate. We have their information. We’ll be following up to make sure they’re doing that. But it’s really, really important.

It’s also the flight attendants, everyone who’d be on that plane. Remember, there was a guy that came from New York City to Palm Beach who tested positive and he still got on the plane and then came down to Florida. And then he was saying he wasn’t going to self-isolate. And then he finally said he would. But sometimes it’s just reckless, reckless behavior, when you have people doing that. And it’s unfortunate, because you have people who have now lost their jobs, you have businesses who may never be able to recover, family owned businesses. The unemployment numbers in the State of Florida, we’d get 200, 500, 1000 a day for most of the time up until this point. Now we’re getting 15 to 20 thousand unemployment claims a day. What’s going to happen to those people? What’s going to happen to them if they can’t put food on the table? If they can’t pay their rent, or they can’t pay their bills, or take care of their families? You’re going to see, not only economic consequences from that, you are going to see a lot of public health consequences from that. I’m worried about the mental health impact of what’s happened. I’m worried about drug abuse, based on some of the dislocations. I’m worried about suicides. I’m worried about domestic violence and I’m worried about child abuse. In any situation like that, all that stuff goes up. This is, maybe, one of the most significant situations people have faced. And so, if they’re going to be put in with some of these policies and yet the policies are ineffective because you have flights, people are on this or that, I think it doesn’t sit well with me and I think it probably doesn’t sit well with a lot of folks in America.

Speaker 5: (30:12)
What measures do you have in place for those unintended consequences that you referred to?

So what I’ve tried to do on this is, think about, okay, here’s some recommendations, we’ve done a lot of CDC stuff. But I think about when you do that, what happens? So, if you shut down a restaurant, what do people do? And because the goal is not… It’s not a problem that you’re at a restaurant. It’s not a problem that you’re at any place. It’s, you don’t want to have large crowds. That’s what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to limit large crowds, so you don’t have as much transmission of the virus. So you have to think one step ahead. I think there’s a question about whether the school closures have been effective. There’s really no evidence, it was recommended and we work with our Commissioner of Education work. I think Singapore, I don’t think they closed the schools, some of the others didn’t. And there’s no difference in how the virus spread in either of the countries based on that. There’s not a lot of data to support it.

So you need to look to say, okay, if the schools are closed, then what stress does that put on the parents? If you have someone who’s working in healthcare, how are they going to be able to take care of the kids? And so there’s second and third order consequences from some of this, that I think people really need to think through. And I think part of what you’re seeing in some of these other places is, when restrictions are put in, people don’t have an outlet, they then go and try to find one. And I talked to a buddy in Southern California, he’s never seen the beaches as packed. He’s never seen some of the parties that are going on. Because people don’t have an outlet.

And so you got to figure out how can you channel this in a way that people understand that there’s a time of sacrifice, but still have an ability to maybe get some fresh air, maybe take their mind off things. Again, not in a large crowd, stay under 10 people, but do that. And I think that’s the needle that you need to thread and that’s what I’ve tried to do. And I think that you have better chance of success being like that, than some of the other things. So, we’re going to continue to evaluate.

And I even I talked to Dr. Burkes and all these people about, what’s the data on when this has been done in America before. And this really has never been done in America before. And so this is something that it’s, it’s like a real life experiment. We’re going to see how effective some of this stuff is in the immediate task and then we’re going to see what the consequences were doing that for the medium and long term.

So my goal is try to protect the public health as best I can, and that’s obviously involves the virus, but it also involves some of the other public health issues that could also be impacted by what we’re doing here. Thank you guys. We’ll see you later.

This way?

Speaker 5: (32:48)
Governor, [inaudible 00:32:49] working at the airport, can I ask you one more about the airport?

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Coronavirus Briefing March 25

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