But at a press conference Thursday, DeSantis stuck to his guns. In his own words, here’s what he said:

“We did an order, no gatherings on beaches, 10 or more. So what you’ve seen now is a lot of the sheriffs‘ departments have instituted protocols. I had the Brevard sheriff, he had his deputies on ATVs. They had a boat going down the coast and they’re telling people you’ve got to disburse. Cocoa Beach, major spring break destination, went down 70 percent since my order.

And so I think that’s a more prudent approach, to do social distancing. I just spoke to the U.S. surgeon general about it. Here’s the thing. They want you to social distance, of course. But they actually encourage people to get fresh air. They just don’t want you congregating in big groups. And so if you have a Floridian that goes and walks their dog, like a married couple on the beach, as long as you're not within six feet of each other, they view that as a healthy thing.

So I think it’s important to allow that if the local communities want to do it, to be able to do it.