The Florida governor was interrupted at a press conference in Miami where he emphasized that the coronavirus pandemic was under control.
When Ron DeSantis started his comments, a young man started teasing him and yelled, “People are dying and you are doing nothing!”
The interlocutor continued: ‘You are falsifying information and you are deceiving the public.
More than 4,000 people have died, and you blame the protesters and do nothing! You should be ashamed! ‘
DeSantis continued talking about the interlocutor as they took him out of the room.
Ron DeSantis was interrupted on Monday afternoon at a press conference in Miami.
The heckler was escorted out of the room, yelling, “What a shame!”
Thomas Kennedy boasted of interrupting Governor DeSantis and posted the video online
Kennedy, a United We Dream activist, posted the images of himself disrupting DeSantis
Heckler Thomas Kennedy boasted of the incident on Twitter.
Kennedy is an activist for United We Dream, an organization run by young immigrants.
DeSantis, a former Republican naval officer and federal prosecutor, has been criticized for the large number of coronavirus cases in Florida.
A strong ally of Donald Trump, DeSantis wholeheartedly backed the President’s drive to reopen quickly.
On Monday, the Florida Department of Health reported the second-highest number of test results received in a day, with 12,624 positive test results and 35 deaths reported to the state in the past 24 hours.
Florida had more confirmed new cases on Monday than all of Europe combined.
Almost half of Florida’s intensive care units are at least 90 percent full, and more than one in five are completely full, Miami Republican Mayor Francis Suarez said Monday.
“Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic,” said Lilian Abbo, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Miami Health System.
“What we were seeing in Wuhan six months ago, now we are there.”
Florida broke its previous record number of coronavirus cases on Sunday, reporting more than 15,000 new positive tests (far right; Monday’s data not yet shown).
Despite the sharp increase in coronavirus cases in Florida, the number of daily deaths has continued to decline f
Carlos Giménez, the Republican mayor of Miami-Dade County, confirmed Monday that there were 2,000 people in the hospital; 400 in ICU wards; and 200 in fans.
He said that the positivity rate for COVID testing in his region was now over 25 percent.
Giménez has instituted a curfew at 10 pm “to try to lower the rate,” he said.
“We don’t want to overload Miami-Dade hospitals,” he said.
‘We have to follow the rules, please. We can reduce the level of contagion. It is up to us to lower the bar, protect each other, and protect the economy.
“Because if we don’t, we will have to take additional steps and undo part of the opening we had.”
Despite record increase in cases, Florida beaches were crowded last weekend
Miami Beach was crowded on Sunday, with large crowds taking to the sandy shores
The latest statewide positivity rate was 11.5 percent, a drop of nearly 20 percent from last week.
There are now a total of 282,435 confirmed cases in Florida, with 4,277 COVID-19-related deaths, the state health department said.
Last week, the state reached a new number of deaths, but its daily deaths are still much lower than those seen in New York when it was the epicenter of the pandemic.
Despite this somewhat encouraging change, the United States remains the most affected country in the world, with more than 3.3 million coronavirus cases and more than 135,000 deaths.
Hospitals in Miami-Dade County are now nearing capacity as coronavirus threatens to flood the health system.
Stocks of remdesivir, the only antiviral medication that has been shown to help coronavirus patients recover more quickly, are declining in Florida, leaving some state hospitals without effective treatments for their patients.
Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo offered to ship the drug for one day to Florida.
The small shipment was enough to treat 280 patients and act as a stopgap for Florida on Saturday, as the state awaited delivery of remdesivir from the federal government.
DeSantis said he had personally secured the new supply of Trump’s antiviral, after vehemently denying that the state needed help from New York.
DeSantis insisted on Monday that, throughout the state, there was a lot of hospital capacity
Cars are seen online as drivers wait to be tested for COVID-19 on Sunday in Miami Beach
On Saturday, 144,000 people were examined, he said.
“The entire United States was probably not doing 144,000 tests in March,” he said.
On Monday afternoon he said that about 85 percent of those being evaluated had negative results.
“We believe we have stabilized, we believe we are going in the right direction,” he said.
‘As you have seen more cases, we have also seen the death rate decrease.
“Right now it’s around 1.5 percent, it’s a fraction of the national average, about 4 percent, and in some states it’s 5 to 6 percent.”
DeSantis said the testing labs were “backed up,” with a seven-day delay in processing the tests. He said they were increasing the testing capacity.
But he said “there are plenty of beds available” in state hospitals.
He said 100 people were directed to work in Miami-Dade hospitals, of the 1,000 mobilized so far. Another 1,000 are being mobilized.
“The staff is the first thing I have heard from our medical professionals, so we are delivering.”
Carlos Migoya, CEO and President of Jackson Health System, said his staff was under intense pressure.
“We are entering our fifth month of having COVID patients, and that makes it very, very difficult for all of our employees, especially for healthcare workers who deal with this on a daily basis,” he said.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of patients.
‘Two three weeks ago, there were around 200 in ICU. Now there are 400. ‘
He said they were coping with the additional demand by reducing the number of nonessential surgeries.
Florida’s Republican leadership, the Miami-Dade governor and mayor, has come under fire from state Democrats for not doing enough.
“I hope that the governor and the mayor will get back to their senses and work with all of us to act quickly,” said Miami-Dade Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, whom Giménez hopes to challenge as the Republican candidate in the 26th District. Florida Congressional. .
“At best, we have a hole in our leadership at the state and federal levels,” said state Democrat Senator Oscar Braynon.
“A coordinated effort between federal, state and local leaders would have prevented us from breaking the COVID case record yesterday.”
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