Governor Ron DeSantis Addresses Rise In COVID-19 Cases, Other Issues During Bill Signing At UM
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was at the University of Miami on Friday, signing into law the "Names, Image and Likeness Bill," but the signing was overshadowed by questions about COVID-19 and part of the Republican National Convention coming to Jacksonville.
Beginning in July of 2021 student-athletes can sign paid endorsement deals.
CBS4's Ted Scouten asked about how to manage an arena filled with thousands of people.
"We'll see," he said. "That's a couple of months away. As I mentioned, Duval County, their hospitalizations are down 50 percent since May 24."
The Governor did not say what types of rules or guidelines would be in place when convention-goers pack the 15,000 seat VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
He deferred to the Republican National Committee.
"I think it will be a mix of mitigation measures and testing," Governor DeSantis said. "They are really working hard on it. They are working with the White House and so it was convinced to me that that it can be done in a way to minimize risk to folks."
This comes as Florida sees it's biggest one day total of positive cases at 1,902 on Thursday, that's up from the previous high of 1,419 on June 4th.
The governor chalks it up to more testing means more positive results. "Now we have widespread testing, we're doing 3 times as many tests a day now than we did at the end of March," the Governor said.
He also points out that there is targeted testing in populations where the virus spreads quickly, like nursing homes, prisons, and with farmworkers. "We made a decision about 3 weeks ago with the department of health to have all the local health departments go into these communities and test, test, test. So you're seeing part of it is that," DeSantis said.
Asked about concerns of protesters getting infected, the governor said he sees no sign of that.
"There is not yet evidence that I'm aware of that that has sparked any type of significant outbreaks. We have our health folks looking to see if they see anything in Florida," he said.
