Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the state "ground zero" for nursing homes and "God's waiting room" in regard to the state's high population of senior citizens.

DeSantis is one of many state leaders considering how to re-open businesses that have been closed in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, which is most dangerous to older people.

He falsely claimed last week that Florida had flattened its curve of new coronavirus infections.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during his Sunday briefing about the state's response to COVID-19 that Florida is "God's waiting room" due to the number of nursing homes in the state.

"Florida is ground zero for the nursing home, we're God's waiting room," DeSantis said, according to local10. "We have a huge number of facilities, a huge number of residents."

Data indicates elderly people and senior citizens are the most susceptible to infection, serious symptoms, and side effects — including death — of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

DeSantis made the comments before claiming that he acted quickly in order to protect Florida's elderly population from the virus that has so far infected at least 32,139 people in the state and killed over 1,088, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. DeSantis had resisted calls to place his residents on a statewide stay-at-home order until he eventually declared such a mandate at the beginning of April.

"The term is a decades-old joke about the amount of retirees that move to Florida; it isn't complimentary," Miami's Local 10 reported, citing Urban Dictionary entries for the term.

There was a negative reaction to his comments on social media.

"Governor, this isn't a time to do stand-up, it's a time to stand up and lead," Terrie Rizzo, the head of the Florida Democratic Party said in a tweet.

"Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis calling his state 'God's waiting room' is about as derogatory a remark as possible," one woman wrote in a tweet. "He is following in the footsteps of Trump; it's the age of anything goes. That's why we have to call out what we see as inhumane, unjust, racist, and all the rest."

DeSantis' office did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment on Monday.

The largest percentage of Florida's population — more than 20% — is older than the age of 65, according to data from the US Census Bureau, and the state has the second-oldest population by percentage in the US, just behind Maine.

DeSantis' comments come as he — and other state governors throughout the country — make plans to open state businesses that have been ordered closed.

While DeSantis has not yet announced how he plans to re-open businesses, he pointed to White House guidelines for re-opening Sunday and said he would "make an announcement pretty soon." The governor last week allowed some beaches in the state to re-open, even as the number of new infections continued to rise, despite his claim the state had "flattened the curve."

With the current stay-at-home order in the state is set to expire at the end of April, the "Task Force to Re-open Florida" on Monday began soliciting public comments about how state residents think the state should go about re-opening amid the pandemic.

As the Palm Beach Post reported on April 24, the task force said state nursing homes will likely remain closed to outside visitors and continue to take extra precautions when the state lifts the restrictions placed to curb the pandemic. About one-fourth of deaths from COVID-19 in the state have occurred in long-term care facilities.

On April 26, state officials reported there were 689 new infections and 19 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours in the state.