ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said his task force will continue working on guidelines following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement of most of Florida entering a phase one plan of reopening on Monday.
JUST IN: @OCFLMayor says the businesses allowed by @GovRonDeSantis to open Monday can plan to open in the County. Says his task force is still meeting daily about other additional requirements they might ask of those businesses to open. #COVID19 #coronavirus #WFTV #reopenFL
— Megan Cruz (@MeganWFTV) April 30, 2020
The plan will allow retail businesses and restaurants to reopen if they make every effort to keep people six feet apart and keep capacity to a minimum.
Phase one of the plan also required businesses to limit occupancy to 25% indoors.
Click here to read the details of the state’s reopening plan.
Read: Governor says phase 1 of reopening can begin May 4: What that means for Central Florida
“Those entities would be able to reopen on Monday as long as they do so in compliance with the governor’s order (and) in terms of indoor seating they have to limit that to 25% of capacity,” Demings said during the Thursday press conference.
Health and regulation officials will be in place to ensure businesses are following the guidelines.
Demings said the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations will keep an eye on businesses; the Florida Department of Health will watch out for health violations; and local law enforcement may step in if needed.
Demings said there was a good deal of ambiguity remains in DeSantis’ plan.
“I see it as something that for the most part is fairly sensible. But it does have a bit of ambiguity,” DeSantis said.
He said the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force is continuing to meet and will likely have an update on how his plan will be enforced in the county on Friday.
Members of the task force have been working on a plan to help businesses buy things like masks, thermometers and hand sanitizer before the official opening. But with little time before the new phase goes into effect, those details may not be able to be sorted before Monday.
“We don’t have the capacity to provide PPE to every business,” Demings said.
Demings also said the overnight curfew order from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. will remain intact.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Coronavirus cases in Florida
Demings also said another reason behind the push to reopen was because Orange County hospitals currently have plenty of beds available.
You can watch the press conference in its entirety below:
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