ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County’s top health leader said he sent an email to state leaders in February asking to declare a local state of emergency in order to prepare for the spread of the coronavirus, but that did not happen until March.
According to an investigation conducted by the Miami Herald, The Florida Department of Health mobilized an emergency response team to contain the spread of COVID-19 on Feb.
13. Two days afterward, Dr. Raul Pino, FDOH Health Officer in Orange County, said he sent a letter to Tallahassee. "(I was) asking for the ability to declare a state of emergency in our agency," he told News 6. "Because if I do that, if I could’ve done that, it would give me the ability to mobilize people from different programs." He