Friday night’s incident involved a large crowd that was “disorganized and surrounded by officers,” another said in a tweet. Miami Beach police have tweeted that they are using pepper balls to disperse the group.
Veronica Pace, a spokeswoman for the city of Miami Beach, told CNN on Sunday that about 100 arrests over the weekend included seizures of some weapons and drugs.
Spring break during the epidemic
Pace said the issues are typical for spring break crowds every year, but that the Covid-19 protocol made the task of policing crowds twice as difficult.
The Florida state does not allow local jurisdictions to penalize people for violating the mask order, and people can only give free masks in the hope that they will wear them, Pace said.
Florida is a popular spring break destination and some of its beaches are packed.
“We’re seeing a lot more spring break activity,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Galber told CNN on Saturday morning. “We’ve had problems with a lot of people coming here, a lot of people let us get out of here.”
“We are concerned,” the mayor said. “It’s very challenging.”
‘A little crazy’
Visiting Amiva – Jamin Stuher said he understands how people can forget about Kovid-19, but he and his friends were trying to remember.
“It’s very important to keep everyone safe, especially those who get it and are more likely to get really sick from it,” he told WFTS. The group said they wear masks on the street and have been with their own group.
Local resident Tanya Landry told WFTS she set up a chair to ensure social distance on the beach and avoided crowds.
“In the early spring break he got a little crazy, the bar got a little crazy, very busy, people without masks, that’s why we tend to stay away from it.”
The Florida Department of Health reported 1,973,109 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, an increase of 5,167 cases since Friday.
Data from the FLDH Dashboard shows that cases have been on the rise in Florida for the past five days, seeing a decline in recent days.
The state health department’s website shows that most of the new cases were from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with more than 67,677 new cases reported in each county.
CNN’s Holly Silverman and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
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