Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is making a big push to revive the battered tourism industry in his state, encouraging potential visitors that air travel is safe and to get on a plane.
The Gov. made his remarks after first meeting with theme park executives this week and, on Friday, with officials from JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines at both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Miami International Airport, according to NPR.
"The fact of the matter is, the airplanes have just not been vectors where you've seen a lot of spread of the coronavirus," DeSantis said.
Spirit Airlines Chief Operating Office John Bendoraitis reiterated DeSantis' stance.
"We've had zero outbreaks on Spirit," he said, "and really we've had zero guests come forward and say they've had any kind of problem onboard the aircraft."
Indeed, catching the virus on a plane has been far less prevalent than the problem of whether passengers are wearing their face masks.
More importantly, DeSantis noted that after a spike in coronavirus cases in Florida the state is going back down again.
"If you go back six weeks and look at to where we are at now, I mean, we've had really strong, durable declines in almost every indicator," he said. "The number of COVID-positive patients who are hospitalized in the ICU is down 49 percent from the July peak. The number of COVID-positive patients just hospitalized generally is down 54 percent from the peak. In Broward, the number of COVID-positive patients hospitalized is down 57 percent from the July peak. In Miami-Dade, COVID positive hospitalizations are down 60 percent."
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