Miami-Dade ready to move COVID curfew to midnight, following Miami’s rule change

Restaurants across Miami-Dade are close to getting longer operating hours as Miami-Dade prepares to roll back the current 11 p.m. COVID-19 curfew to midnight as Mayor Carlos Gimenez eases a crackdown on nightlife.

Gimenez’s office announced the pending change after city commissioners in Miami, the county’s largest municipality and primary restaurant market, decided Thursday to stop enforcing the county curfew before midnight.

“We will monitor this weekend’s testing results and hospitalizations, and, if all remains stable, we plan to move the countywide curfew to midnight until 6 a.m.,” Gimenez said in a statement.

The move comes two weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered bars and nightclubs to reopen in Miami-Dade and across Florida. Miami-Dade’s COVID statistics haven’t shown a spike since then, though the rate of tests coming back positive and the volume of coronavirus ambulance calls have inched up slightly.

Gimenez said if the numbers looked steady over the weekend, the curfew would move back an hour on Monday.

The Miami-Dade curfew ends daily at 6 a.m., and Gimenez said that time wouldn’t change.

Miami-Dade has been in a state of emergency since March, and Gimenez used his emergency powers July 3 to impose a 10 p.m curfew countywide to try and tamp down a surge of COVID spikes after lifting the first wave of business closures in May.

Gimenez moved the curfew to 11 p.m last month.

The pending second easing of the countywide curfew follows lobbying from restaurant owners pleading for longer nighttime hours — especially when the Miami Heat’s playoff run forced them to eject customers while games were underway or be in violation of county law.

On Thursday, Miami commissioners undercut Gimenez’s rule by voting to set the city’s own curfew at midnight. The vote had no immediate change because county law applies within city limits. But the city also said Miami police officers wouldn’t enforce the county curfew until midnight.

James Flanigan, president of the Flanigan’s chain of South Florida restaurants, said the 11 p.m. curfew was a particular problem in Miami-Dade as the restaurant industry struggles to generate revenue after months of closed dining rooms and an entertainment scene upended by COVID concerns and restrictions.

“It’s going to allow us another seating and, in turn, more revenue,” he said. “The Dade County crowd is a later crowd.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2020 at 5:31 PM.