Miami-Dade wants businesses to mark off six-foot coronavirus gaps for customers

Miami-Dade businesses allowed to remain open during the coronavirus emergency must make “reasonable efforts” to make sure customers and workers maintain social distance as recommended by the CDC.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the planned measure Thursday night, but the actual order was not available Friday morning. In a second video address Friday morning, Gimenez said he signed the order. “All pick-up and take-out areas, along with employee break rooms and common-use areas should have markings on their floor or some other visible means of alerting people that they must stay six feet apart,” Gimenez said in the video.

The order came out later in the day. It does not include mandates beyond requiring essential businesses to take “reasonable efforts to ensure that customers & employees ... maintain appropriate social distancing.” The order said those efforts may include marking separation spaces for customers and employees.

Wielding unprecedented emergency authority, Gimenez has ordered thousands of businesses to close to slow the spread of COVID-19 and limited restaurants to take-out sales. Earlier this week, he warned of stepped-up enforcement and said he would close pick-up windows popular for selling Cuban coffee, known as ventanitas, if people kept gathering too closely at them.

Carlos Gazitua, president of the Sergio’s chain of Cuban restaurants in Miami-Dade, said the mayor’s comments alarmed him enough that he installed non-skid vinyl markings on the sidewalk outside the windows to keep customers separated. Before, the restaurants had taped off the distances, Gazitua said, but not enough people noticed the guidelines.

“When you’re there, it’s hard not to be social,” Gazitua said of the popular windows. “The window is a social gathering place. It’s where people come to talk politics and family.”

This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 12:37 PM.