Governor Promises 'Guns Blazing' Response To Covonavirus Surge

MIAMI, FL — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised a "guns blazing" response to the state's ongoing surge of coronavirus cases and the strain it has placed on hospitals throughout the state.

"We have all guns blazing here," DeSantis said Monday evening during a visit to Miami's Jackson Health System. "We’re going to continue to be able to provide support statewide, but particularly here in south Florida where we see the epidemic is the most significant."

A heckler was removed from the press conference after he repeatedly shouted "shame on you" and accused the governor of blaming protesters for the surge in cases.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said his county has more than 2,000 coronavirus patients at Miami-area hospitals, including more than 400 people in intensive care units and 200 people on ventilators.

"These are all record highs for us," Gimenez said. "We know that there’s a heck of a lot more people that have COVID-19 that aren’t actually reported officially."

He said the county has a positive test rate of about 25 percent, meaning that one in every four people who are tested come back as positive for the disease.

Carlos A. Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System, which is Florida's largest public health system, said Florida hospitals have increased their ability to accommodate new patients by juggling elective surgeries.

"We are entering our fifth month of having COVID patients," Migoya said. "That makes it very, very difficult for all our employees, specifically the health care workers that are dealing with these patients on a day-to-day basis. The stress that goes with that is extremely, extremely difficult."

He said Jackson has seen a "dramatic increase" of coronavirus patients over the past 30 days.

"Three or four weeks ago, we were around 200 patients. Today we're exceeding 400 patients, of which about 100 of them are in ICUs," he said. "We have a higher percentage of COVID patients today than we did a month ago. That is obviously very stressful to every employee because we’ve got to make sure that we have the [personal protective equipment] on, and make sure that everyone is covered and protected."

DeSantis said state officials are working to activate 3,000 contract medical personnel, including 100 who were promised to Jackson and another 100 being sent to the Tampa Bay area.

"Some of them are going to be in our COVID-only long-term care facilities to get those beds up," he said, referring to 14 such facilities around the state. "Some of them will be in actual long-term care facilities."

The governor said the state may not need all of the contract medical personnel but that officials wanted to be prepared.

"If someone tests positive, or a number of staff tests positive, we’ll be able to send some new staff in there to care for the residents," the governor said.

While the recent surge in new cases has put a strain on the ability of Florida hospitals to accept new patients, facilities have not literally run out of beds, according to the governor, who said the additional medical workers will allow hospitals to accommodate more patients.

"We have the beds," he said. "Statewide, we’ve been between 10,000 and 15,000 beds consistently empty for the last three weeks even as we’ve seen traffic come in for coronavirus."

The governor said state officials are also considering a plan to reduce the number of infections in multigenerational households through state-paid hotel stays.

"The question would be, would someone be willing to isolate at state expense in a hotel for a week or two, and some of them may not," DeSantis said. "Now, I’m not going to force anyone out of their home, but I think that’s an option just to try to stop the spread within a household if you have some vulnerable individuals there."