Miami to Close Beaches for Holiday Weekend as Virus Cases Surge

Miami is shutting its beaches to try to stem the spread of Covid-19 just hours after the state’s governor dismissed the need for changes to Florida’s virus strategy, highlighting the tensions among policymakers over how to respond to the record increases in new cases in the U.S.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced late Friday that the city’s popular beaches would be shut for the Independence Day holiday weekend. Texas and Florida earlier had halted drinking at bars to respond to a jump in infections, primarily coming in Sun Belt states whose governors were quick to reopen businesses over the past two months.

Gimenez said in a statement that the five-days suspension starting July 3 would be extended “if conditions do not improve.” The move came hours after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signaled that he wasn’t willing to reverse the state’s reopening seven weeks after it began. When asked by a reporter why he wasn’t adopting measures, he responded, “Like what?”

The U.S. set a new single-day record on Friday, with more than 40,000 cases diagnosed. The new infections, showing no signs of slowing, have topped the previous mid-April peak, when the Northeast was mired in the emerging pandemic. As a result of the surge, the European Union is moving closer to banning all travelers from the U.S. when it begins opening borders on July 1, a move that will deal another body blow to the airline industry.

46,860 in BrazilMost new cases today

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-2.​3% Global GDP Tracker (annualized), May

The competing visions of the nation’s progress on responding to the spreading pandemic were on display yesterday in Washington with the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force holding its first briefing in two months. Vice President Mike Pence largely offered a positive twist, citing “truly remarkable progress,” while Dr. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, outlined troublesome signs for the future.

Fauci Pleads With Public on Virus Peril; Pence Sees Progress

“All 50 states and territories across this country are opening up, safely and responsibly,” the vice president said. However, data from public health departments across the country and the reopening rollbacks in states in the South and West, including Texas, Arizona and Florida, belie his statement.

Florida reported 122,960 Covid-19 cases on Friday, with a record increase of 8,942. Hospitalizations are also climbing, although DeSantis says the state continues to have ample capacity to meet patients’ needs. Texas posted a 4.3% rise in new cases on Friday exceeding the 4.1% seven-day average. Hospitalizations also rose by almost 8%. Arizona’s infections rose by 5.4%, almost twice the average daily rate for the prior week.

Pence also pointed to rising cases among younger Americans, who are more likely to recover from the virus, and declining death rates as evidence of the country’s progress. Pence repeated President Donald Trump’s assertion that cases are rising only because more testing is being done.

Understanding the Surge

The task force’s medical experts focused on steps that states with rising case counts need to take to get the outbreak under control, saying there isn’t enough time now to figure out what caused the surge.

Some may have opened too early or not followed the recommended process, while others that went about it in the right manner may have seen their citizens ignore the advice for a number of reasons, including fatigue at being pent up for so long, Fauci said. That has to change, he added, making a plea to young people to take the virus seriously.

“What we are missing in this is something we have never faced before,” Fauci said. “A risk for you is not just isolated to you because if you get infected, you are part -- innocently or inadvertently -- of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic.”

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