Evan Jenne, co-leader of the Democratic minority in the Florida house of representatives, accused DeSantis of fitting Florida with "concrete shoes".

"At the beginning of the pandemic a lot of free rein was given to local governments, because they were the ones with boots on the ground, they were the ones seeing what was happening and a lot of people were saved an untimely death because of actions of local governments," he said.

"By hamstringing them, by putting their hands behind their back and lacing up concrete shoes, it's just going to make it that much more difficult. When you have a government the size of Florida's, covering 22 million people, it's going to be less nimble and less agile than the smaller, local governments and our local health departments.

"Having an executive branch take all of that authority and power away from them is just not going to be a good move for public health into the future."

Jenne and his Democratic colleagues were vocal opponents of the measures, but outnumbered by Republicans almost two to one during last month's special legislative session convened by DeSantis, a Donald Trump protege who is tipped for a presidential run in 2024.

Since the summer, a period in which his state recorded its highest coronavirus death rates since the start of the pandemic, DeSantis has also battled with and fined school districts and local authorities over vaccine and mask mandates, offered $5,000 payments to unvaccinated police officers to work in Florida, and appointed the tendentious Dr Joseph Ladapo, a fellow skeptic of vaccine and mask mandates, as Florida's new surgeon general.

"If Donald Trump says I'm not running to be president again, Ron DeSantis will be the Republican nominee for president without question, and a lot of the stuff that you're seeing him doing is buoying that idea and reaching out to his base and a particular segment of society that loves this stuff," Jenne said.

"Politically, I think it's a wise move. For public health I think it's dangerous."

Other elected officials, healthcare professionals and parents have also accused the governor of putting politics ahead of science.

The notoriously prickly DeSantis, meanwhile, continues to present himself as a defender of the Florida economy, and citizens' freedoms against the perceived tyranny of the Biden administration's efforts to implement national mandates or lockdowns.

At a press conference this week defending the new laws, the governor was asked about the Omicron variant, and lashed out at a familiar target: what he sees as "corporate media" controlling the conversation around Covid-19.

"We are not, in Florida, going to allow any media-driven hysteria to do anything to infringe people's individual freedoms when it comes to any type of Covid variants," DeSantis said, before turning his attention to Biden and the chief White House medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, a familiar sparring partner.

"In Florida, we will not let them lock you down," he said.