This week, President Joe Biden’s administration is considering imposing domestic travel restrictions in Florida over to fears of spreading the new highly-contagious United Kingdom COVID-19 variant, reports say.
A White House source told Miami Herald on Wednesday the action is being considered amid an increase of cases of the new coronavirus variant knowns as B11 in the Sunshine State.
“There are active conversations about what could help mitigate spread here, but we have to follow the data and what’s going to work. We did this with South Africa, we did this with Brazil, because we got clear guidance,” the source told the Miami Herald.
“But we’re having conversations about anything that would help mitigate spread,” the source continued.
The White House is reportedly said they are considering “all options” to stop the spread of the virus.
“No decisions have been made, but we certainly are having conversations across government,” the White House official said. “This is a war and we’re at battle with the virus. War is messy and unpredictable, and all options are on the table.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to the report, calling the move “unconstitutional, unwise, and unjust.”
“The recent report that the Biden administration is considering restricting the travel of Floridians is completely absurd, especially when Biden allows illegal aliens to pour across our southern border. We won’t allow Floridians to be unfairly targeted for political purposes,” the governor tweeted.
“Restricting the right of Americans to travel freely throughout our country while allowing illegal aliens to pour across the southern border unmolested would be a ridiculous, but very damaging, farce. So we will oppose it one hundred percent. It would not be based in science. It would purely be a political attack against the people of Florida.”
DeSantis has taken a more lenient approach to COVID-19 restrictions, promising in December that the state wouldn’t have any more lockdowns or mask mandates.
“Any attempt to restrict or lockdown Florida by the Federal government would be an attack on our state done purely for political purposes,” DeSantis said.
Florida also allowed the NBA and NFL to hold their respective championships in the state, and announced its desire to host the Olympics this year if Tokyo falls through.
According to the governor, Florida falls 28th in per capita cases when compared to the rest of the country since December, with 29 other states also having higher per capita hospitalizations.
