Florida lifts COVID-19-related restrictions on youth activities

Summer camps and youth sports may resume immediately, Gov. Ron DeSantis said May 22.

By Jonathan Simmons
| 4:32 p.m. May 22, 2020

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in Jacksonville May 22. Image from The Florida Channel livestream

Palm Coast Observer
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The state of Florida is lifting all COVID-19-related restrictions on youth activities such as summer camps and sports.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the change during a press conference in Jacksonville May 22, stating that it would take effect immediately.

"We believe that it makes sense based on the data and the observed experience," DeSantis said. "We are not going to be instituting a lot of rules, or really any rules."

The Florida Department of Health will release a set of questions and answers or best practices, he said.

"At the end of the day, we trust parents to be able to make decisions in conjunction with physicians and community leaders and coaches to be able to do these activities in a way that are safe," he said. "I think our kids have been out of organized activities for a couple months now, and I think that we need to have a pathway to get it back."

DeSantis said that in Florida, no one under the age of 25 has died from COVID-19, while the number of COVID-19-related deaths in people age 90 or above has exceeded the number of COVID-19-related deaths in people under 65.

Experience from the U.S. and studies in Europe indicate that children do not seem to be a major vector of transmission for COVID-19, he said.