Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is declaring that his state “got it right” during the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, the Florida governor praised his leadership and state’s handling of the pandemic.
He noted statistics that show Florida has “lower per capita COVID mortality than the national average and lower than 27 other states.”
“Florida got it right and the lockdown states got it wrong,” DeSantis declared.
Watch his comments below:
"Florida got it right and the lockdown states got it wrong." @GovRonDeSantis on Florida's response to COVID 19. #CPAC2021 #AmericaUnCanceled pic.twitter.com/ANWFWUTWGX
— CPAC 2021 (@CPAC) February 26, 2021
Florida saw a spike in new COVID-19 cases reported in mid-July of 2020 and then again at the start of January 2021. The state, however, has been on a downward trend in new cases since roughly mid-January.
There have been 6,080 new cases reported per day over the past week in Florida. This is a 22% decrease compared to the two weeks prior, according to The New York Times.
The Times puts Florida in the category of states where new cases are higher but going down.
Florida has reported over 1,800,000 positive COVID-19 cases so far, as of Friday morning. In comparison to some other states, New York has reported 1,620,181, Texas has reported 2,633,310, California has reported 3,554,195, and Illinois has reported 1,184,374 total COVID-19 cases, according to the Times.