TAMPA, Fla. — The new cases of coronavirus in Pasco and Hillsborough counties have been linked to domestic travel.
This weekend, Florida Governor DeSantis made it clear he thinks the federal government should consider restricting travel in the U.S. Right now, the restrictions are only for foreign travel.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said she believes Hillsborough County is at the tip of the ice burg right now.
Three of the 39 COVID-19 cases that were announced Sunday morning were in the county. Two of them were directly related to domestic travel.
While Tampa International Airport continues doing all it can to stop the spread of the virus, Mayor Castor says local flights should be stopped until the virus is under control.
"One of the things that we’ve asked all of our citizens to do is to heed the socials distancing warning. Take those simple steps to avoid contracting the coronavirus. But anything that we can do to eliminate that close contact, whether it’s any kind of domestic travel on planes and those types of things, we need to take those steps," Castor said.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force suggested nothing was off the table Sunday afternoon, but there are no domestic travel restrictions just yet.
If the federal government does limit flights, it would likely start with cities where there are a high number of COVID-19 cases.
For now, Mayor Castor says the Tampa Bay area is focused on testing anyone who thinks they might have symptoms. She thinks more cases will pop up before things calm down.
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