When will the Keys reopen for tourists? Not before other places ease limits, mayor says
Monroe County leaders said Monday that the Florida Keys will not reopen to tourists until neighboring counties to the north, including Miami-Dade, significantly ease their restrictions put in place to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The concern is that if Monroe is the first county to open businesses, beaches, parks and marinas — and lifts the two checkpoints heading into the county — the island chain would be overwhelmed with visitors
“Once the Keys are open, everyone in the world is going to want to come down here, and who can blame them?” Monroe County Mayor Heather Carruthers said during a conference call with other government officials.
The county started the checkpoints, located on the 18 Mile Stretch of U.S.1 and County Road 905, on March 27 to keep tourists out. Hotels and other lodgings are closed, and only residents and people who work in the Keys can get through.
Monroe County never closed its beaches, but unincorporated Monroe has very few that people frequent. All municipalities in the Keys, including Key West, Marathon and Islamorada, have closed their beaches. State parks with beaches, including John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, are also closed.
Monroe does own Clarence S. Higgs Memorial Park in Key West, which it closed at the request of the city.
And, like the rest of the state, all bars are shut down, and restaurants can only be open for takeout and delivery orders.
Carruthers’ comments were in response to an update given by Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi in which he said he was coordinating with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and officials from Broward and Palm Beach counties on plans to phase in reopening South Florida.
“Obviously, we want to be very, very cautious,” Gastesi said.
He said the discussion so far has focused on three categories: retail, hotels and outdoor spaces like beaches, parks, marinas and golf courses.
“We’re told golf courses will open first, with a lot of conditions,” Gastesi said.
Gimenez said on Twitter Sunday that there is “currently no timeline for opening beaches.” Miami-Dade beaches have been closed since March 19.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week allowed mayors to reopen their beaches where it can be done safely.
Mayors in some towns, like Jacksonville Beach, opened theirs Friday. The beaches are open in the morning until 11 a.m. and in the evening from 5 to 8 p.m., but only for exercise, not sunbathing.
Bob Eadie, administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County, said much more testing needs to be conducted in the Keys before any loosening of restrictions happens.
“We are not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination,” Eadie said during the conference call.
According to Eadie, the county does not have enough kits to conduct widespread testing, and any talk of reopening the Keys should wait until officials have a much better idea as to how many people are infected with COVID-19 or who have had the virus and recovered.
His goal is to have between 10 and 20 percent of the approximately 74,000 Keys residents tested, but so far a little over 1 percent, or 952 people, have taken COVID-19 tests, according to the latest Department of Health numbers.
Eadie said officials from both the state and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tell him every week that more tests are on their way, but it hasn’t happened yet.
“Without having a real robust ability to test, we have to be even more conservative,” he said. “I wish I had better answers. I really do.”
As of Monday, 73 people in the Keys tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to the health department. Three people have died.
“We still have active infections here,” Eadie said. “We still have a ways to go.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 2:41 PM.
