ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron Desantis’ Emergency Order waiving work search requirements will be extended for one week.

The order was set to expire after the weekend, but Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced Friday that the order would be extended to May 9.

“The online work registration and work search requirements of section 443.091, F.S. will continue to be suspended consistent with the “emergency flexibility” guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Labor,” DEO said in a statement. “These actions will enable DEO to move quickly to expedite Reemployment Assistance payments as Floridians go back to work. These suspensions will expire on May 9, 2020.”

DEO says it is working as quickly as it can to process outstanding claims. Since March 15, DEO says more than 960,000 Floridians have filed for benefits, of which 693,767 claims have been processed.

However, of the nearly 1 million claims filed, only 44 percent (426,623) of applicants have received any state and/or federal benefits.

“I literally go day by day when it comes to paying bills; it’s really hard right now,” said Lacey Gamble, a mother of one, who has worked as a server at a Walt Disney World restaurant for 14 years.

Gamble was among more than 400 people to participate in a caravan protest Friday. The nearly 2-mile-long caravan drove from Kissimmee to the Florida Mall in Orlando.

The caravan protest was organized by Unite Here Local 737, which represents more than 40,000 Central Florida restaurant and hotel workers, including many furloughed from their jobs at Walt Disney World.

While the group is petitioning for permanent improvements in pay and healthcare and workplace benefits, frustrations are further fueled by the slow pace of unemployment benefits distributed by the state.

“It means I can’t pay my bills, it means I can’t put food on my table,” Gamble said. “It’s bringing me to the point to go to food pantries and hope they can assist me.”

State leaders insist they are working as quickly as they can to install a series of fixes to speed up payments.

During a press conference Friday in Jacksonville, Gov. DeSantis said he is satisfied with the results so far.

“Starting to get good results, I’m happy, but we need to do more, but we’re much better than we were a month ago,” DeSantis said.

The governor also continued to place blame on his predecessor, former governor-now Senator Rick Scott.

“The whole system was in tatters, some people couldn’t even get on, and there’s going to be a whole investigation that needs to be done on how the state of Florida could have paid $77 million however many years ago they did,” DeSantis said.

While many of those problems persist, so do new ones.

Neither DEO nor the governor’s office have said what may have caused a surge of "ineligible" determinations, when individuals say they have extensive work histories and exceed the minimum salaries needed to earn state benefits.