Miami Beach, Florida, Mayor Dan Gelber is bracing for a possible coronavirus spike if people who’ve been stuck in their homes for a year visit his city during spring break.
“We’re very concerned. You know, a lot of things are happening simultaneously. You have the variant down here, and we still are having sometimes dozens of deaths a day in our county,” Gelber said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“And at the same time, we’ve got incredibly cheap round-trip tickets for 40 bucks from anywhere in the Northeast down here, discounted rooms and people who have been really…pent up and wanting to get out with no other place to go than here. So we are very worried that there’s going to be a convergence of people here and a real problem in the aftermath of that.”
While there is ample outdoor dining and hotels have been following guidelines, Gelber said that gatherings at bars “might become the kinds of super-spreaders that I think we saw a year ago.”
Gelber said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has hampered his ability to give out fines, so police officers and ambassadors are handing out masks. The city is also enforcing a curfew and a noise ordinance.
“I would love to have the governor’s voice urging people to be responsible, but we really don’t have that right now,” he said.
