DeSantis declares COVID 'state of emergency' over, overrides local restrictions
Mary Ellen Klas, The Miami Herald
May 3—Declaring Florida's COVID-19 emergency over, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed an executive order invalidating all remaining local emergency COVID orders and signed a bill into law that bars businesses, schools and government entities across Florida from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination.
"I think it's the evidence-based thing to do," DeSantis said at a St. Petersburg restaurant where he signed the bill with House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson at his side. "I think folks that are saying that they need to be policing people at this point, if you're saying that, you really are saying you don't believe in the vaccines, you don't believe in the data, you don't believe in the science. ... We are no longer in the state of emergency."