TALLAHASSEE – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Twitter account had a big announcement coming from the owner of a barbershop in downtown Orlando.
J Henry of J Henry’s Barber Shop invited everyone out to his shop and other barbershops and salons that would be able to open starting Monday in all counties that are in Phase 1 of the governor’s reopen Florida plan.
Miami-Dade and Broward County are not included in Florida’s phased plans yet. Palm Beach County was also not included initially, but Mayor Dave Kerner sent a letter to DeSantis pleading for permission to reopen his county and the governor agreed on Friday.
Barbershops and salons were not initially included in the Phase 1 stage of reopening.
DeSantis said any of the facilities that open must use enhanced safety protocols.
Locally in Gainesville, the city will open pools with increased safety protocols and limited persons in pools.
In his expansion of the Executive Order of Phase 1, DeSantis stated that “data collected by the Florida Department of Health indicates that the State continues to flatten the curve.”
The Florida Department of Health reported over the weekend that Florida had risen above the 40,000 cases mark. As of Monday, 1,721 deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus and 7,171 hospitalizations.