Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced Thursday that one million COVID-19 tests will be sent to elderly communities as part of his administration’s “seniors first” approach to combat the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
“We are redoubling our commitment to putting seniors first by prioritizing the delivery of test kits to assisted living facilities and nursing homes,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We’ve secured up to one million tests to be used for those most vulnerable to coronavirus complications, allowing us to put seniors first for early treatments which save lives.”
A press release from DeSantis’ office notes that President Biden’s initiative to distribute 500 million COVID-19 rapid tests has not come to fruition. That, and the “public health bureaucrats in Washington” continuing to encourage young, asymptomatic people to test for COVID-19 drives up demand for tests.
“If you are just young and healthy, you don’t need to be running out and getting tested every day,” DeSantis said in his remarks in a news conference Thursday.
"We're in a situation now where we understand the deal here, most people are gonna be fine, but if we do have the vulnerable, whether it's Omicron or Delta, get that at-home test and then get the treatment," he added.
Before DeSantis’ announcement today, he made an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” where he slammed Biden’s handling of COVID-19 and tests being scarce.
"The Biden administration promised they were going to send all these at-home tests," DeSantis said on Fox & Friends. "They said all you had to do is go online and get it, and nothing has happened in a month and a half with doing that."
DeSantis added that they’ve secured a million at-home tests to be distributed at nursing homes and long-term care facilities in Florida. Then, tests will be distributed to broader senior communities throughout the state.
"His [Biden’s] promise was he would shut down the virus,” DeSantis said in the interview.
"He blamed Trump for COVID cases and deaths. He didn't blame China, which is really where the blame belongs,” he added. “Not only has he not shut it down, you have cases and hospitalizations in parts of the country like we've never seen before, so that fundamental promise he made to the American people, he has absolutely failed."