As cases of COVID-19 begin to surge in Florida, Disney World theme parks in Orlando prepare to begin reopening again. In an official statement posted to the Disney World website, it announced that EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios will reopen on July 15, while it's Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom reopened on July 11.
Disney has been phasing in the reopening of several of its parks across the globe as well. The Disneyland in Shanghai, China reopened on May 11, but that was only after cases in the country dropped dramatically over time. China's government also asked that the theme park heighten its safety and health guidelines, with attendees having to get temperature checks upon entry, the capacity of the park being cut in half, and other COVID-related precautions.
Disney World will also be enforcing new health and safety guidelines upon the parks reopening as well including temperature screenings before entering the park, all guests two years or older required to wear masks, and ground markings to maintain a six foot distance among other things.
Despite these new rules, this theme park will be reopening in the wake of Florida seeing a spike in cases of COVID-19. NBC News cited that the state has now recorded a total of 254,511 cases, and as of July 10, Florida has become one of the top four states that have recorded the most cases of coronavirus with 9,087 new cases each day for the last seven days this week alone.
Just earlier today, a Florida county commissioner who had previously voted against his county enforcing people to wear masks in public was admitted into the hospital for testing positive for the virus, and began experiencing complications because of it.
