Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Believes Super Bowl Possibly Caused Spread of Coronavirus in State

The coronavirus pandemic continues to be an issue across the country, and the state of Florida has been hit hard in terms of the number of cases. It's uncertain how the virus has spread all over Florida, but Governor Ron DeSantis has an educated guess. During his press briefing on Friday, DeSantis said the spread of coronavirus in Florida could have been caused by the Super Bowl, which was played in Miami in February.

"As we got into February, this thing was circulating. I think it was circulating during the Super Bowl," he said to PEOPLE, also noting that South Florida is an area where domestic and international travelers spend a lot of time. DeSantis is not 100 percent sure if it started during Super Bowl weekend, but over 200,000 people were in South Florida for the big game and Hard Rock Stadium holds 65,000 fans.

According to The Guardian, there are 9,585 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida with 163 deaths. Last week, DeSantis ordered all travelers coming from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to undergo a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine. This week, he ordered a statewide stay-at-home order, which started on Thursday and it will last for a month.

What DeSantis did a similar to what President Donald Trump recently ordered. Earlier this week, Trump extended the social distancing guidelines from April 15 until April 30.

"We had an aspiration of Easter but when you hear these kind of numbers and you hear the potential travesty... we don't want to have a spike up," Trump told a USA Today reporter. "We've gone through too much. So that was an aspiration."

If it turns out Super Bowl was the cause of the spread in Florida, it could mean the start of the NFL 2020 regular season could be delayed. However, the league is not only confident the season will not be pushed back, but the games will also include fans at the stadiums.

"All of our discussion, all of our focus, has been on a normal traditional season, starting on time, playing in front of fans, in our regular stadiums, and going through a full 16-game regular season and full set of playoffs," Jeff Pash, the NFL's executive vice president, general counsel. "That's our focus."

The NFL season is set to begin in early September.