Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties are currently not apart of Phase One of the state’s reopening plan, with the exception of elective surgeries. Under the first phase, which started on Monday, restaurants and retail shops across Florida can operate at 25 percent capacity.

Local officials are attempting to get the rest of south Florida to open up as well.

While at a coronavirus testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens,  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he hopes Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties will be added to the first phase “soon,” but did not give a specific date.

DeSantis said he is in “discussions” with local officials to add Palm Beach County to Phase One of the state’s reopening plan.

“We’ll hopefully be able to go forward soon in southern Florida, and I think that we can look to South Florida to really help lead Florida back,” DeSantis said.

Although all 3 counties meet the White House requirements to partially reopen in Phase One, DeSantis said that because of the high number of cases in these counties, the decision was made to exclude the counties from Phase One.

“I consulted with [Miami-Dade County] Mayor Gimenez, the other appropriate officials in Palm Beach and Broward about what would Phase One look like. And they were doing last week some very important announcements on parks, marinas, boats, golf courses. And so they want to see how that’s going,” DeSantis said. “We’re now going to be in discussions about the next step for these three counties.”