As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen across the United States, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently suggested this week that the virus could have been spread during Super Bowl LIV, which was held in Miami.
DeSantis, who recently issued a stay-at-home order for Florida, said in a press conference this week, that a lack of available testing kits for COVID-19 made it difficult to track the number of cases.
Super Bowl LIV, which took place on Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium, drew more than 60,000 fans in attendance with many from across the country and world coming to witness the game. The week leading up to the Super Bowl is an event itself with celebrities, media members and fans all in Miami enjoying the atmosphere.
DeSantis cited that many Floridians could have come in contact with many of the tourists that were in Miami during the time, causing the spread of the coronavirus throughout Florida.
“I can tell you in terms of how this has spread in Florida, we think it’s Floridians who traveled internationally and brought it back, international travelers who came to Florida, people from New York who have come to Florida, and then Floridians who have gone to New York City and brought it back,” DeSantis said, via FOX. “Those are the main ways where this thing really took root in Florida.”
Even if people in Miami weren’t showing symptoms, the possibility exists that they could have been asymptomatic carriers with COVID-19. In a large city with many people close together, it would have been easy for the virus to spread.
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 215,000 cases of the coronavirus in the United States. There are 7,717 confirmed cases of the virus among Florida residents and 293 cases among non-residents, per Florida Health.