Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings plans to announce new coronavirus guidelines in the wake of a recent statewide spike in cases.
Demings plans to announce the changes in a news conference at 4:30 p.m. today. While he was vague in interviews about the substance of the new guidelines, it is unlikely that they will carry the force of a mandate. Florida’s legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law effectively barring local government from issuing coronavirus emergency orders earlier this year.
“We will make some announcements about the adjustments we are going to make. We will make adjustments internal to the county and other adjustments externally that we can do under the laws of the state,” he told WKMG.
[content-3]While the mayor’s hands are relatively tied when compared to the wide leeway he had to order shutdowns and enforce guidelines at the outset of the pandemic, Demings refused to sit idly by while Orange County sees nearly 1,000 new cases per day.
“What we don’t have is the luxury of doing nothing,” he said.
The news conference can be streamed live via Orange TV’s YouTube channel.
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This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2021.