Florida man (he’s from Tampa) arrested in Hawaii for breaking quarantine order

Last month Florida’s governor ordered New Yorkers flying into the state to self-isolate for 14 days because of the coronavirus.

Leave it to a Florida man to violate a similar order in another state.

More specifically, a Tampa man: Dwight Tucker, 62.

He was arrested on the island of Kauaʻi on Tuesday afternoon for violating Hawaii’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for all incoming visitors and residents because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Kauaʻi Police Department.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige instituted the mandatory 14-day quarantine order for anyone arriving on or after March 26.

Tucker flew into the Island on Monday and checked into his hotel in the city of Kapaʻa, where he was supposed to stay for 14 days — without leaving the room to even get food from a restaurant.

When he was arrested on Tuesday, police said, he was in a city nearly 40 minutes away, in Hanalei.

Tucker was booked into the local jail on a misdemeanor charge but was quickly freed after posting $100 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court on May 27, records show.

Hawaii News Now, a local TV station on the islands, reported that Tucker was the first visitor to be arrested in the state for violating the quarantine order. There have been other quarantine-related arrests on the island, but none from visitors, the station reported.

Police say Tucker was not showing symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus that can lead to severe respiratory infections.

Kauaʻi, the Hawaiian island where Tucker was arrested, has 12 reported cases of the coronavirus, according to the Hawaii Department of Health, and has no recorded deaths. The state as a whole has just 224 total cases as of Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in his home state, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday finally issued a statewide stay-home order for the next 30 days in Florida to slow the virus.

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