Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced this Monday that he would be signing an executive order urging Floridians in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties to stay home through “mid-May,” according to the Miami Herald.
“This codifies a set of rules regarding ‘Safer at Home’ in Southeast Florida,” he said. “It gets all four counties operating on the same sheet of music.”
The Herald reports that the four counties cited in his order make up 58% of the total positive novel coronavirus cases in the state.
But some Florida government officials think his order doesn't go far enough.
"Is he going to set up county checkpoints to prevent ppl from leaving this part of the state?" tweeted Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-FL) "What a mess."
Also speaking out was Sen. José Javier Rodríguez (D-FL).
"Regional safer-at-home orders are a welcome step. However, piecemeal and patchwork will not cut it because we remain so far behind on testing and we cannot know how far behind we also are in trying to catch up with the virus as it spreads," he tweeted.
According to Sen. Annette Taddeo, DeSantis' order should be for the entire state.
"Thank you @GovRonDeSantis for implementing a #StayAtHomeOrder for South East Florida!" she tweeted. "Although I still believe we need one for the entire State of Florida, I welcome any step in the right direction to protect our citizens from #Covid_19."
A tweet from the Florida State Democrats' Twitter account called on DeSantis to issue the order statewide.
"@FarmerForFLSen calls on @GovRonDeSantis to issue statewide stay-home order: 'Steps taken by state officials have not stemmed infection rate of deadly virus. With current observations this disease is accelerating, only prudent action left is close off avenue of transmission.'"