Fourth of July fireworks are still on in the Keys. Is it safe amid the pandemic?
The threat of the novel coronavirus has not snuffed out plans for Fourth of July fireworks displays throughout the Florida Keys.
Key West, Marathon and Key Largo, as of Thursday, will all host fireworks for America’s big birthday, even as some city officials worry that social distancing at the events may be a bust.
“We’ve got two weeks to take a look at this,” Key West Mayor Teri Johnston said this week at an online City Commission meeting. “Our numbers are not going in the right direction. We’ve got a lot of things to think about here.”
Not every annual event will go off this year.
Key Largo’s annual July 4 parade has been canceled, and so have Islamorada’s fireworks and the fireworks show on Big Pine Key sponsored by the Lower Keys Rotary Club, which canceled in May.
But the most populous city in Monroe County, Key West, says the show will go on.
The city kicks in about $40,000 for the fireworks display, which is put on by one of the island’s three Key West Rotary clubs.
Key West leaders have concerns about the extent to which they can mandate social distancing for the Fourth of July event, which typically draws a huge crowd to Higgs Beach for the waterfront display.
“Having July Fourth is important, especially this year,” City Commissioner Sam Kaufman said.
“I know it’s a scary event,” said Key West City Commissioner Billy Wardlow. “The city of Key West should give something back to its community.”
People have been asking city employees whether they can maintain proper social distancing — at least six feet between people who don’t live together.
“I don’t know how we guarantee that,” City Manager Greg Veliz said. “We can promote it, definitely ask for it.”
Jim Olive of the Rotary Club said the plan is to provide food and a show.
“We believe it can be done safely within the new norms,” Olive said. “We can do it reasonably safely.”
Key West requires masks inside public places. The mayor says it’s part of the emergency directive and punishable as a criminal misdemeanor with possible jail time.
But the mask rule is about people who are indoors, though the city has recommended through public service announcements for people to wear masks if within six feet of people they don’t live with.
The city’s directive does not order people to wear masks while outside.
Veliz said he does not like the idea of putting police into the position to order people to wear masks or escort them off the beach during the Fourth.
Over the past weekend, Duval Street was filled with people milling about without wearing face masks, Veliz noted.
“People were not being responsible,” he said. “Some would question if social distancing is capable with the amounts of people we had in town on Duval Street.”
Key West’s fireworks will start around 9 p.m. at the Edward B. Knight Pier off White Street and Atlantic Boulevard. The surrounding Higgs Beach is the most popular viewing spot.
The Rotary is selling VIP seating on the pier to raise money for its scholarships program. VIP seats included a catered dinner and a private cash bar, along with the closest seats aside from the pyrotechnic team, Rotary says.
Marathon still plans to have its annual July 4 celebration on Sombrero Beach. But city officials as of Thursday had not decided whether to make the event only accessible by boat, according to a message from the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce.
Marathon’s fireworks, however, will go on, the chamber said.
In Key Largo, the fireworks are scheduled to be launched off Blackwater Sound at 10 p.m., said Elizabeth Moscynski, president of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the parade.
The best viewing options are from Sundowners, Jimmy Johnson’s Big Chill, Marriott Key Largo Bayside Resort, and the Caribbean Club, Moscynski said.
As for the parade, she said, “Hopefully, next year will bring us better luck,”
The Keys have had a much lower rate of COVID-19 infection than its neighboring South Florida counties, which have become hot spots for the virus.
But on Thursday, Monroe had its highest new daily total since the pandemic began, adding nine new cases for a total of 146 cases.
An Upper Keys nursing home has become a cluster for COVID-19 cases. At the Crystal Health and Rehab Center on Plantation Key, 22 people — 15 residents and seven employees — have tested positive.
Four people in the Keys have died from COVID-19-related illness, the state Department of Health has reported.
FLKeysNews and Miami Herald staff writer David Goodhue contributed to this report.
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