Face masks are not required at Miami-Dade parks outside of groups
More than a week after a Miami-Dade County order was rolled out requiring face masks at parks, the county has released a new interpretation of the rule, which clarifies that masks are not needed outside of groups.
The updated interpretation of Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s emergency order requiring masks among most parks visitors was announced Saturday.
The director of the Miami-Dade parks system made the decision Friday after consulting with the county’s legal team, but it was the City of Miami Beach that announced the news in a Twitter post on Saturday.
In a 4 p.m. email to the mayor and commissioners Saturday, City Manager Jimmy Morales said the decision came during a weekly call among county and municipal parks officials.
“Yesterday, they indicated that the requirement is now that facial coverings are only required in the parks when social distancing cannot be achieved,” Morales said.
Gimenez reopened parks, golf courses and marinas on April 29 under strict guidelines to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Emergency Order 21-10 still states “[f]acial coverings shall be worn, except children under the age of 2, persons who have trouble breathing due to a chronic pre-existing condition, or persons engaged in strenuous physical activity.”
But the updated interpretation means that park visitors are not required to wear a mask while walking through a park or resting under a tree. If a group of friends gathers or if a visitor is walking among a crowd, masks will be required.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said the city’s park rangers would adopt the new interpretation effective immediately.
“We are faithfully following the county’s interpretation of its own rule,” Gelber told the Miami Herald. “It should not be a signal by any means that we should recede from the guidelines to promote physical distance.”
South Beach park closed after masks not worn
Gimenez’s order imposed park rules countywide, but cities have taken different approaches in enforcing them. Miami Beach was aggressive, issuing 7,831 face-mask warnings citywide in the first five days parks were reopened.
At South Pointe Park, which the city closed Monday after widespread rule breaking, park rangers issued an average of 18 face-mask warnings per hour during that five-day period, according to a Miami Herald analysis of parks data.
That’s about 39 percent higher than enforcement rates at the North Shore Open Space Park and Lummus Park, which had the next highest rates of face-mask warnings per hour. Forty percent, or 3,140, of all face-mask warnings were issued at South Pointe Park.
Morales, who closed South Pointe using emergency powers granted to him by the commission, announced Friday he would reopen the park this Monday at 7 a.m.
News of the updated interpretation follows more than a week of confusion, frustration and debate among residents and city leaders over the face-mask rule.
The new interpretation extends to the city’s beachwalk and baywalk, on which the city had previously required face masks for most visitors.
In Miami Beach, which can go farther than the county in its emergency orders, visitors must still possess a face mask of some kind when entering any of the city’s parks, recreational centers or while using the beachwalk and baywalk.
Children under 2 years old do not need a mask to enter the parks.
“As we have said all along, things change rapidly during this pandemic,” Morales wrote to commissioners Saturday.
The enforcement of the face-mask rule has been inconsistent in Miami Beach, with critics pointing to the ambiguity of the term exercise or medical condition.
Commissioner Ricky Arriola, who has butted heads with the administration, proposed during Friday’s City Commission meeting that Morales remove the city-imposed mask requirement for those walking on the beachwalk or baywalk.
“This could all have been avoided if the City Manager had simply not required face mask on the baywalk — something we are not required to do,” Arriola posted on Facebook on Saturday.
This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 7:20 PM.
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