Ron DeSantis issues stay-at-home order for Florida after mounting pressure

Florida is getting a statewide stay-at-home order after its governor previously held off on taking the step.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Wednesday he's issuing a stay-at-home order for all of Florida that will go into effect at midnight on Thursday and last for at least 30 days amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, NBC News reports.

In a press conference, DeSantis said he's ordering Floridians statewide to "limit movements and personal interactions outside the home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities." It "makes sense to make this move now," he added.

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Florida had previously been among the last large U.S. states without a statewide stay-at-home order, and DeSantis was under mounting pressure to issue one; he previously ordered residents of Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties to stay at home, The Hill reports. The state has confirmed almost 7,000 coronavirus cases.

On Tuesday, DeSantis said that President Trump and his coronavirus task force "has not recommended" that he issue a statewide stay-at-home order but that if they did, "obviously that would be something that would carry a lot of weight with me." His announcement Wednesday came after he spoke over the phone with Trump, who recently extended the federal government's social distancing guidelines until the end of April, The New York Times reports.

"When the president did the 30-day extension, to me, that was, 'People aren't just going to back to work,'" DeSantis said Wednesday, per the Times. "That's a national pause button."

Asked in an appearance on Today on Wednesday about whether Florida should have a stay-at-home order, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams responded by describing the current federal social distancing guidelines as amounting to a "national stay-at-home order."