ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite record hospitalizations, Florida isn’t under a state of emergency as the highly transmissible delta variant sends cases soaring, frustrating one Central Florida emergency manager’s response and tying the hands of other local leaders confronting the new pandemic challenge.
Gov. Ron DeSantis declined to reinstate Florida’s emergency declaration, even as the number of people needing to be hospitalized for the virus exceeded previous peaks, and he’s also curtailed the ability of local leaders to craft their own responses.
The widespread availability of vaccines and new antibody treatments mean that an emergency declaration isn’t needed, DeSantis has said. He’s dismissed the latest spike as a “seasonal” fluctuation and called hospital capacity concerns “media hysteria.”
