Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is shutting down indoor dining at restaurants, gyms and party venues, again, as coronavirus cases soar.
The mayor tweeted the closures will go into effect on Wednesday.
“With the percentage of COVID-19 positive cases growing and an uptick in hospitalizations in Miami-Dade County, I'm continuing to roll back business openings. This will affect restaurants (except for takeout & delivery service), gyms and more,” he posted Monday.
In a news release announcing the closures, Gimenez said office buildings, retail stores and grooming services will remain open.
Outdoor activities including condominium and hotel pools with strict social distancing and masks rules will stay open. So will summer camps and child daycare centers with capacity limits, requiring masks and social distancing.
He said beaches will reopen Tuesday and will stay open unless there are too many people ignoring public health rules. Beaches were closed over the holiday weekend.
“We are still tracking the spike in the number of cases involving 18- to 34-year-olds that began in mid-June, which the County’s medical experts say was caused by a number of factors, including young people going to congested places — indoors and outside — without taking precautions such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing,” the mayor wrote.
“Contributing to the positives in that age group, the doctors have told me, were graduation parties, gatherings at restaurants that turned into packed parties in violation of the rules and street protests where people could not maintain social distancing and where not everyone was wearing facial coverings.”
He added that he is counting on residents to wear masks and social distance to stop the spread of the virus.
There is still a countywide curfew in place from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Essential workers and people with a religious obligation are exempt from following the rule.
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