Man dressed as grim reaper vows to visit US beaches that reopen too early

A lawyer in Florida has vowed to tour the beaches of the United States dressed at the grim reaper should they be prematurely reopened in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Daniel Uhlfelder, who is based in Santa Rosa Beach and Stanford educated trial lawyer, has said that from May 1 onwards he will tour the US dressed as the reaper in an attempt to warn people of the dangers of coming out of quarantine too early.

This comes after the Republican governor for Florida, Ron DeSantis has begun to ease social distancing regulations, with states such as Texas, Georgia and Tennessee also saying that rules will start to be relaxed in the coming weeks.

For Uhlfelder, this isn't good enough and he wants his fellow American citizens to realise just how serious this matter is and how cautious they should be before returning to their normal lives.

He has already ventured onto crowded beaches wearing a full hazmat suit but he is now stepping things up by donning the grim reaper gown and the trademark scythe to hopefully scare people enough to compel them to stay indoors.

Speaking to Business Insider, Uhlfelder explained that he could see the economic benefit of reopening beaches but fears that the progress on defeating the virus would be undone with such a decision.

Our beaches are a big draw. I love our beaches, and I wish could go to them. The progress we're making, though, is going to be diminished with the quick reopening.

I understand the pressure because it's such a big part of our revenue. But, we need to get back to normal quickly, and I think reopening prematurely is going to prolong this.

That's why I'm doing things that are kind of unorthodox. You now have a trial lawyer wearing a Grim Reaper costume on the beach. That's not normal, but these are not normal times.

In addition to warning people, Uhlfelder's tour will also be used as a fundraiser with all donations going to Democrats who are running for federal office in the US against Republican politicians such as Matt Gaetz

His crowdfunding page has a goal of $20,000 and has already raised more than $3,000.

Scenes from a few weeks ago saw students who attended the spring break festivities in Florida contract coronavirus after failing to follow social distancing rules.