While speaking to reporters in Jacksonville Friday morning, Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said all restrictions on youth activities have been lifted.
“Effective immediately, Florida will be lifting all restrictions on youth activities including summer camps and athletics,” said Gov. DeSantis.“We believe this makes sense based on the data and observed experience.”
DeSantis noted that the Department of Health may put forth some best practices for moving forward, but they won’t be “instituting a lot of rules or any rules.”
“We believe that this makes sense based on the data and observed experience. We are not going to be instituting a lot of rules, or really any rules,” said DeSantis. “At the end of the day, we trust parents to be able to make decisions in conjunction with physicians.”
DeSantis said today’s decision, which would allow Florida’s summer camps and youth sports to begin immediately, would not preempt local governments from making their own rules.
“At the end of the day, we trust parents to be able to make decisions in conjunction with physicians and community leaders and coaches to be able to do these activities in a way that is safe,” continued the governor.
While the Republican governor emphasized that children are much less likely to face serious consequences from COVID-19, the state currently has a growing number of children with “multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,” or MIS-C. As of now, it’s unknown how many children currently have the COVID-19 related illness.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms for MIS-C include fever, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, irritation and redness of the whites of the eyes, swollen lymph glands in the neck and irritation and inflammation of the mouth, lips and throat.
This is a developing story and we'll update it with more information.
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This article appears in May 21-27, 2020.