Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, announced on Friday that state parks will soon reopen, even as the coronavirus pandemic continued and Death himself stalked the beaches of the Sunshine state.

In fairness, the Grim Reaper in question was actually Daniel Uhlfelder, a lawyer and campaigner for public beach access who put on a cowl and wielded a scythe in an attempt to alert Floridians to the dangers of reopening their economy too soon.

As footage of a socially distanced interview with a TV reporter at Miramar Beach in Walton county went viral, Uhlfelder said: “We aren’t at the point now where we have enough testing, enough data, enough preparation for what’s going to be coming to our state from all over the world from this pandemic.

“I know how beautiful and attractive our beaches are. But if we don’t take measures to control things, this virus is going to get really, really out of control.”

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 1.1m confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the US and more than 65,000 deaths.

There have been nearly 35,000 cases in Florida, and just over 1,300 deaths.

States across the US are grappling with how and how quickly to reopen their shuttered economies. In general, Republican governors are moving more swiftly to reopen than Democrats.

Uhlfelder hopes to use his protest to reap donations to Democrats running for Congress.

Announcing the reopening of state parks, DeSantis, a Republican, defended the reopening of some beaches

He also cited a controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) study he said showed sunlight, heat and humidity – plentiful commodities in Florida – can kill Covid-19.

“The DHS study said that sunlight (UV) rapidly killed the virus in aerosols, and it said that outdoor daytime environments are lower risk for transmission of the virus than indoor environments,” DeSantis said.

“In terms of surfaces, when a virus may be left on a surface [the] DHS study concluded that sunlight kills the virus quickly, and that the virus is less stable overall at higher temperatures and higher humidity.”

The study came under a harsh spotlight itself last month , when Donald Trump told a White House briefing he thought the virus could be treated with sunlight.

The president also said he thought injecting disinfectant might beat the virus. Experts said it would not.

The DHS has said the study is preliminary and is undergoing peer review.