Summer camps and kindergartens may remain open with capacity limits and other rules. Office buildings, retail stores, and grooming services will also remain open. The order will not affect certain outdoor activities, hotel and condo pools, or the planned reopening of county beaches on Tuesday, the mayor said, but contains warnings that require rules for masking and social distancing.
“If we see overcrowding and people who do not follow public health rules, I will be forced to close the beaches again,” said Giménez.
A curfew will be maintained from 10 pm to 6 am for everyone except essential workers and those with religious obligations.
Anyone who witnesses violations must call 305-4POLICE, according to the statement.
“We want to make sure that our hospitals continue to have the necessary personnel to save lives,” said Giménez, explaining the motivation.
Looking at the numbers, “we saw a huge increase” about two weeks after opening gyms and other facilities and reversing some restrictions on restaurant opening hours in late May, Giménez told Wolf Blitzer on CNN Monday, speaking about the last move. .
Set bad records
Florida now has more than 206,000 cases, placing it behind only New York and California, and topped its highest daily count on Friday with 11,436 cases, more than a dozen states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have counted since the beginning of the pandemic.
It followed on Saturday with 9,997 cases and 6,327 on Sunday. It has more than 3,700 deaths.
“My concern is that we are going to reach capacity, our medical capacity here in Miami-Dade, and that is something that I do not want to reach,” Giménez said on CNN.
Especially worrying, he said, is the increase of about 8% of positive cases among those analyzed to more than 20%.
“That is the real problem. And when that correlates with the increase in hospitalizations, then it is known that there is an increase in the infection rate here in Miami-Dade County,” said Giménez, explaining that the increase in Cases is not just an increase in the rate of evidence as Governor DeSantis has suggested.
Hospital director: ‘Congratulations to the staff’
The University of Miami Health System is seeing positive tests on the rise and more patients, ranging from the 20s to the 90s, said Dr. David Lang, the system’s chief medical officer for emergency medicine.
“I think it puts some stress on the system,” he said. “Many of them are getting sick and our admissions have increased.”
The hospital has been preparing since January and has a comprehensive and fluid plan, said Dr. Tanira Ferreira, the system’s medical director. While the staff is capable of handling different levels of overvoltage, and has beds, fans, and medications to manage it, it has not been easy for them.
“It certainly emphasizes the system, but congratulations to the staff. We have not stopped working. The staff continues to work: work nights, days, weekends, they call it,” said Ferreira.
When the state first closed in April, the city of Miami counted about 35 new cases per day, and the curve eased thereafter, to 14 new cases per day, said Miami Mayor Francis Suárez. He presides over the city, while Giménez heads the county government.
“Now, we have more than 90 new cases a day as of Thursday,” said Suarez. “We are at a growth rate three times faster. I think the virus has become very efficient in spreading … When a person contracts it in a home, they return home. When they experience symptoms and are tested, everyone in the house they are infected, so you go from one person to an infection rate of four or five people almost overnight. “
The city is demanding masks in public and instituting sanctions for companies that don’t follow the rules, Suarez said. Another order to stay home could be on the cards, the mayor said. He would like to see a mask rule across the state, he said.
“I don’t think it’s any different than … asking people to wear their seat belts and fining them if they don’t,” Suarez said.
Miami Beach is also experiencing increasing hospitalizations that could end in another shelter order in place, Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN, predicting that the situation in his city “is going to get much worse.”
“Too many people are obviously not taking all of these warnings seriously to distance themselves socially, wear masks, all of those things,” Gelber said. “We’re going to try to avoid a complete shelter-in-place, but we can’t get that out of the equation because, frankly, if our hospital system is so overwhelmed, well, then we’ll have to consider that.”
Contact that tracks a problem
Although Miami-Dade County is the Covid-19 epicenter in a state that has become the nation’s epicenter, the county does not have its own contact trackers because duties are under Florida’s responsibilities, he said.
In mid-May, Giménez said the county would hire up to 1,000 contact trackers, but asked how many had been hired Monday, a county representative said by email that only the Florida Department of Health can do the job.
“We are in discussions with the state about how the county can complement its efforts. As soon as these discussions are over, we will have a direction on what we can do to assist in the contact search efforts. Therefore, we do not have ours.” said the Miami-Dade statement.
In his statement announcing the executive order, Giménez said the county “was still tracking the increase” in cases involving people between the ages of 18 and 34, which he said was the result of younger residents congregating in congested areas without precautions. Graduation parties, restaurant gatherings and protests were some of the places where the virus spread, he said, citing doctors.
“We need to reduce the social activities of young people, because that is where our problems began, with young people,” Giménez said on CNN. Then they are “passing it on to their parents and grandparents, where we have now duplicated people in the hospital with Covid-19.”
The Florida Department of Health did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Meanwhile, authorities remind the public to do their part to curb the spread of the virus.
“We can reduce the spread if everyone follows the rules,” said Giménez. “I count on you, our 2.8 million residents, to stop the spread and to reopen our economy.
Ferreira added with the University of Miami Health System: “Everything is in behavior. People need to adhere. The scientific message has not changed, and that message is social distance, wear a mask, wash your hands, if you are sick Go get tested. That message hasn’t changed.
“What has to happen is that people must adhere to and follow that message.”
Rosa Flores from CNN, Sara Weisfeldt, Artemis Moshtaghian, Boris Sánchez, Elizabeth Cohen, Dana Vigue and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.
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