The more populated areas in the State of Florida have mask mandates, the rural areas do not. Florida Governor Desantis approval rating has crashed during the Pandemic for his botched handling, mismanagement. He is now under fire for "pop up vaccination sites" for his wealthy political donors. Not good. OUCH https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/politics/ron-desantis-vaccines/index.htmlhttps://www.miamigov.com/Government/Stand-Up-Miami/Mask-Rules-Citations
Mask Rules & Citations
All persons throughout Miami-Dade County are still required to wear a mask or other facial covering when in public, at parks, and inside all establishment but are not required to have them on under the following exceptions only:
All persons in violation of the Emergency Order 20-20, as amended, will be issued a civil citation and may be subject to fines and penalties at a later date or charged criminally pursuant to Sec. 252.50, Fla. Stat.
- At or inside a private residence;
- Inside a private automobile;
- At or inside any religious institution, without limitation;
- Inside a hotel, motel, or commercial lodging establishment guest room, or inside any apartment;
- Children under the age of two years;
- Persons who cannot wear a mask or facial covering due to an existing medical condition;
- Individual who is hearing impaired or an individual who is communicating with an individual who is hearing impaired;
- Where federal or state safety or health regulations prohibit the wearing of facial coverings;
- Persons swimming or engaged in other activities which may cause the facial covering to become wet;
- Persons are actively eating or drinking at restaurants or smoking; and
- While a person is receiving services which require access to that person’s nose or mouth.
- Persons actively engaged in strenuous physical activity outdoors if social and physical distancing can be guaranteed or participating in organized sports as defined by Emergency Order 29-20, as amended; facial coverings must be put on by athletes and other individuals standing on the sidelines of sports competitions;
- If a person is (1) stationary, (2) outdoors, and (3) a fixed physical barrier, marker, or obstruction exists to ensure a separation of not less than 10 feet between the stationary individual and all other persons.
DeSantis defends controversial vaccine deal with developer -- and threatens to pull vaccines if officials don't like it
By Konstantin Toropin, CNN
Updated 10:49 PM ET, Wed February 17, 2021
(CNN)Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has threatened to move a pop-up vaccination clinic that his state has set up in an affluent community in Manatee County after he was confronted with allegations of political favoritism and preference for the wealthy at a news conference Wednesday.
Manatee County announced on Tuesday that Florida's Division of Emergency Management would host a "pop-up" vaccination spot at Lakewood Ranch this week for 3,000 Manatee County residents, according to a statement from the county.
The vaccines, however, would be limited to people living in only two zip codes -- 34202 and 34211.
Manatee County Commissioner Misty Servia, a Republican, criticized the selection of these two areas at a Board of County Commissioners work session on Tuesday.
"You're taking the Whitest demographic, the richest demographic in Manatee County and putting them ahead of everyone else," Servia said. "The optics are bad ... very bad -- I'm really disappointed," she added.
Commissioner Reggie Bellamy, a Democrat, also noted that he's been "fighting like hell to show people that the (vaccine) lottery is equal and we cannot compromise the system."
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"And now all of a sudden someone is telling me that we were able to go in and pull names out -- pull a certain demographic out -- and say, 'These are the people that we're going to serve,'" he added at the Tuesday meeting.
Board of County Commissioners Chair Vanessa Baugh, a Republican who is a strong supporter of DeSantis, said that the clinic "was done strictly by the governor who called Rex Jensen ... they wanted to do a pop up session in Lakewood Ranch."
Jensen is the CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the parent company of Lakewood Ranch, according to the company's website. The development is an affluent community that boasts new home prices "from the $180,000s to more than $1 million," according to its website.
DeSantis, however, defended the choice when confronted with the criticism at a news conference on Wednesday.
"It wasn't a choice about zip codes, it was a choice about where's a high concentration of seniors where you could have communities provide the ability for them to go on (to get vaccinated)," he said.
He also pushed back at the suggestion that the choice was politically motivated, saying he didn't "understand the accusation."
DeSantis fired back at the county officials who had concerns with the choice.
"If Manatee County doesn't like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it," DeSantis said.
"We're going to look to do more and more with the additional doses but anyone in Manatee ... if they don't want us doing it, then just tell us, and we'll make sure that that that we send those doses to folks who want it," he also repeated later in the news conference.
The governor also noted that the doses that will be distributed at this location are in addition to the doses allocated to the county as a whole and that he has set up two of these vaccination events every week in places like The Villages, Kings Point and Sun City in Hillsborough County.
Meanwhile, Lakewood Ranch, in a statement to CNN, said that their involvement in the clinic was only "to help identify a site that could accommodate 1,000 people per day."
"We reached out to Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh and asked if the County-owned Premier Sports Campus would be an option," spokeswoman Lisa Barnott said in an email.
Barnott noted that Baugh coordinated the use of the site, as well as use of the Manatee County registry of people who had signed up for vaccinations.
State Democrats have blasted DeSantis for his remarks.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz said in a statement that DeSantis "must stop playing politics with the vaccine distribution here in Florida."
"Threatening retribution and less vaccine access for communities that criticize the vaccine rollout for its problems is shameful and inhumane," Diaz added.
Democratic state Sen. Annette Taddeo said that "it's disgusting and unacceptable for the governor to politicize life-saving vaccines."
"The Governor owes Manatee county residents an apology and a public statement reassuring the public that political games will not be used in the distribution of vaccines in our state. Period," she added in a statement.
CNN's Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.