Gov. Ron DeSantis reiterated that Florida will not be imposing any COVID-19 mask or vaccine mandates at a news conference Thursday in Jacksonville.
DeSantis was joined by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo at the news conference at an Irish pub.
The governor spoke out as some schools outside Florida have brought back masking for students and some colleges are still requiring booster shots.
"You think that they just won't try anything new again and then they always try to figure something out," DeSantis said. "If you give these people an inch they will take a mile."
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COVID hospitalizations have been increasing, from about 6,000 a week at the beginning of the summer to more than 15,000 the week of Aug. 19, the most recent week of federal data. But in 96% of the country, COVID hospitalizations are considered low, according to the CDC.
The percentage of U.S. deaths attributed to COVID in late August – 2% -- was up from 1.7% the week before.
The CDC recommends that people infected with COVID stay home and away from others for at least five days and to wear a high-quality mask when indoors around others. The CDC also says that people who are not infected should avoid being around the infected person until their home isolation period ends. If they must be near an infected family member, it’s important to consistently wear a high-quality mask, practice good hand hygiene and take other infection-prevention measures, the CDC says.
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DeSantis became an outspoken opponent of school shutdowns and mask mandates early on during the pandemic.
After initially closing schools, as all governors did in March 2020, DeSantis issued an executive order that July mandating that schools reopen for in-person instruction, ignoring objections from teachers and unions.
