TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the latest on the coronavirus in Florida and took a shot at both China and the World Health Organization.
The governor spoke at the capitol in Tallahassee just before 5 p.m.
DeSantis said Wednesday he has been encouraged with the leveling off of cases in the state.
He took offense to some of the criticism that Jacksonville has taken for opening up beaches on Friday. He complimented the officials in Duval County for their response to the coronavirus.
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DeSantis said around 18,000 more coronavirus tests will be processed after a new lab contract.
The governor also called out the World Health Organization and China, questioning their response to the virus.
"This World Health Organization, I think the president is right on that. They were basically parroting China talking points. The World Health Organization in January, after what we saw was going on, said there was no evidence, that the coronavirus was transmissible person-to-person," said DeSantis.
DeSantis said he would encourage companies that make life-saving medical equipment to move manufacturing operations out of China to the U.S. and "Florida would be a great place to do it."
On Tuesday, Missouri announced they are suing China over the impacts of the coronavirus, saying the country did 'little to stop the spread of the disease." DeSantis said Wednesday he wants to see "if Florida can be involved in that."
As of Wednesday evening, there have been 28,576 confirmed cases in the state with 927 deaths.
Palm Beach County has 2,348 cases, which is the third most of any county in Florida.
On Tuesday, DeSantis admitted that Florida's system to process unemployment claims for unemployed workers is a "jalopy." However, he said the state is making "a lot of great progress" to get people their checks.
