Florida and California have taken drastically different approaches to combat the spread of coronavirus – but both states have seen key metrics improve in recent weeks.
California Governor Gavin Newsom imposed stricter rules, most recently mandating a statewide stay order on December 3, which lasted until the holiday season.
The order, which was suspended on January 25, went so far as to ban open-air dinners, beauty services and religious services.
In the State of the Sun, on the other hand, measures were taken to ensure that businesses were kept open.
In September, Governor Ron DeSantis prevented municipalities from implementing restrictions that would force restaurants and bars to operate at less than half capacity.
He also signed an executive order that prevented companies from facing fines for challenging orders related to COVID-19.
DeSantis on Sunday argued that the state was “focused on raising people”, while “blocking states” are “getting people out of the market”.
“There are a lot of things that we have done for COVID, but at the same time, we have raised our state, saved our economy and I think we will be the first to get out of the gate once we are able to put COVID behind the country,” he said to Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures”.
However, despite the different approaches of the two states this winter, they have produced similar results.
Both states faced an increase in the number of cases around January 1, with the number of infections decreasing a few weeks later.
They are now seeing an average of 200 to 400 cases per million people and each has reported falls in the past few days, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Likewise, the two states also registered an improvement in hospitalizations.
About a month ago, California recorded a rate of 56 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents, while Florida recorded a rate of 35, the data show.
Golden State now records 24 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, while Florida records about 22, the data show.
California currently leads the country in total number of cases, but has almost twice the number of Florida residents.
When the cases are adjusted for the population, their count is almost the same.
California reported about 8,822 cases per 100,000 people, while Florida has about 8,508 for the same population, the data show.