FL Gov. Overrides County Officials to Allow Church During Coronavirus Lockdown

https://news.yahoo.com/fl-gov-overrides-county-officials-204155187.html

Pilar Melendez
,The Daily Beast•April 2, 2020

[Republican] Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has overruled local counties’ power to ban large religious gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic, carving out an extraordinary loophole that officials say will violate social distancing guidelines and ensure further spread of the virus.

By allowing religious services to continue, DeSantis is seemingly siding with religious leaders who’ve stood against the federally mandated guidelines—including controversial Tampa pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, who refused to stop holding services because he believed his church had machines that could stop the virus.

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The Sunshine State has scrambled to combat over 7,773 positive cases of coronavirus and 100 deaths less than a month after the first known infection in the state.

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When asked about his second executive order that overrides local governments, DeSantis said he thought it was understood that his stay-at-home decision was going to be the newest guideline but said he is “happy to work” with officials to make sure everyone is safe.

“[Local governments] can go beyond what I’ve done...What we’re doing is setting a floor,” he said. “And they can’t go below the floor.”

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Florida is not the only state to allow religious services to continue despite the ongoing pandemic that the White House believes will claim between 100,000-200,000 lives at best. In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine issued a similar order to allow church services to continue while in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has ruled religious services that adhere to social distancing as “essential.” Michigan and Kansas also have similar religious exceptions.

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