Orange County putting together coronavirus strike team to randomly inspect businesses
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Orange County, FL ( WESH) — The number of coronavirus cases in Florida continues to increase by the thousands every single day.
Still, Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida is in a better place now than it was back in March.
“We are capturing a higher percentage of the infections. You go back in March, you had to be symptomatic and usually a certain age to get a test. So, there were way more people who were infected who never got tested,” DeSantis said.
But the recent rapid increase in new cases has many people worried.
“We should not be going to school right now. We should not have people out and about. This is really serious. People are dying from this virus,” Dalila Montilla of Orlando said.
“I think we should probably take a step back just considering the level of cases that have gone up,” Nick Anstey of Orlando said.
Bars were essentially shut down three weeks ago. Since then, the governor has made no mention of taking any further steps backward.
In Orange County, Mayor Jerry Demings says he’s looking into additional steps but doesn’t want to punish businesses who are following the rules.
“We want to kind of focus on the bad actors and not all of those who are complying,” Demings said.
To do that, Orange County is putting together strike teams, or groups of county officials, who will randomly inspect businesses to make sure they’re complying with reopening guidelines.
Still, many people say their biggest issue is people not wearing masks.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t even have them on. They’re just walking around like nothing and that’s how you get sick. That’s how you spread the virus more,” Ninoshka Rodriguez said.
When it comes to masks, the governor has said multiple times he does not think it is necessary to implement a statewide mask mandate.
In Orange County there is a mandate.
Mayor Demings says he will be meeting next week to discuss the potential of enforcing the mandate more strictly.
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