Castor plans to issue stay-at-home order for the city of Tampa this morning
By Brendan Ward
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 25, 2020

Mayor Jane Castor enacted a stay-at-home order for Tampa residents during a press conference on Tuesday.

The order is expected to go into effect this morning. Affected businesses will mostly be in the tourism industry and restaurants, many of which are already closed or on take-out only, and other businesses that bring large gatherings together. The order will not affect essential businesses including banks, gas stations, doctors offices and grocery stores. The full list of essential businesses was not provided.

Castor’s order follows a county commission meeting Monday where she aggressively pushed for the measure, only to have it pushed down the road to the commission's March 31 meeting. Commissioners appeared to prefer a curfew instead of a stay-at-home order.

Just before Castor’s announcement, Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said no part of Hillsborough County would go under a stay-at-home order unless the county agrees to it.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has been pushing Gov. Ron Desantis to enact a shelter-in-place measure; the mayor has so far not enacted his own. For DeSantis’ part, he has been reluctant to issue a shelter-in-place order, calling it “not advisable.” He did enact a mandatory two-week quarantine period for any travelers flying into Tampa International Airport that have been in high risk areas like New York.

This latest order comes as Florida now has a reported 1,400 cases with 91 confirmed in Hillsborough and 45 in Pinellas. John Hopkins recently released a live map to track cases on a county and city level.