Virus hits spring break trip; Florida to 'stay home'

Despite warnings of an ongoing pandemic, many college students went on spring break trips, including 28 students at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) who have tested positive for the coronavirus, the university announced Tuesday.

The UT students’ trip was organized by Las Vegas-based JusCollege. A group of about 70 students left Austin for Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on a chartered flight March 14 and returned March 19.

Austin and UT health officials said that some flew back on commercial flights. Four of those who tested positive showed no symptoms. Authorities have contacted every spring breaker on the charter flight and are tracing passengers abroad the commercial flights.

The 28 confirmed cases are self-isolating, and others are under quarantine while being monitored and tested.

So far, 38 students and seven faculty members at UT have tested positive for the coronavirus, are presumed positive or self-reported as positive.

The UT students were not alone in ignoring social distancing orders last month. Popular spring break destinations like Florida were swarmed with thousands of students two weeks ago amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Helicopter footage and social media posts showed people sunning side by side and swimming in the ocean in groups in mid-March at Florida’s Clearwater Beach, without regard to social distancing.

The beach crowds flabbergasted some locals, and local governments limited beach access in response. The Clearwater City Council voted to close down Clearwater Beach for two weeks starting March 23, bringing an early end to spring break for some college students.

Some of the young visitors were upset by the order.

“What they are doing is bad. We need a refund. This virus ain’t that serious,” a spring breaker named Atlantis Walker told CBS News. “There’s more serious things out there like hunger and poverty, and we need to address that.”

Even after Florida surpassed 5,000 reported coronavirus infections, Governor Ron DeSantis resisted calls for a statewide stay-at-home order. He said it was up to local officials to close nonessential businesses and beaches.

On Wednesday, DeSantis issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state.

“No matter what you do, you’re going to have a class of folks who are going to do whatever the hell they want to,” he had said earlier in the month.

Other states that saw significant outbreaks, such as California and Washington, swiftly issued stay-at-home orders and shut down nonessential services. New York eventually followed suit.

By Wednesday, Florida had the fifth-most cases of any state in the US, with nearly 7,000 infections and 87 deaths, according to its state health department.

Florida’s stay-at-home order goes into effect Thursday at midnight and will last for at least 30 days.

DeSantis, a Republican ally of President Donald Trump, said the order makes sense now after Trump announced earlier in the week that the administration is extending its social distancing guidelines by 30 days. DeSantis said he took that as a “signal” from the president that the same approach was needed in the Sunshine State.

“At this point, even though I think there’s a lot of places in Florida that have very low infection rates, it makes sense to make this move now,” DeSantis said, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “I did consult with folks in the White House. I did speak to the president.”