Reopening Miami-Dade is a minefield. Make sure it doesn’t blow up in our faces | Editorial
Ready or not, South Florida’s most populous counties will start to reopen, even though they have not met the national guidelines for relaxing coronavirus restrictions.
Heaven help us all.
Come Monday, Miami-Dade and Broward counties, home to almost 5 million people, will dip their toes into the murky waters of normalcy, whatever that will look like. Palm Beach and Monroe counties already have plunged in, as have most of the rest of states. Florida Gov. DeSantis excluded South Florida when he announced Phase 1 of the state reopening two weeks ago.
In five days, after being shuttered for months, Miami-Dade and Broward will allow restaurants, small businesses, retail stores, hair salons and barber shops to open their doors at 25-percent capacity with social distancing, masks, restrictions and caveats.
Brave new normal
It will be dangerous territory for all of us. Neither county has met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines set up for reopening in the country: two weeks of declining deaths and new cases. We’re far from any such significant steady declines in South Florida. We’re walking a perilous tightrope with our health and lives and without the security of a vaccine or adequate testing.
We get that fear of economic ruin is driving this bus. But it cannot be allowed to backfire on us with a killer spike of cases. South Florida is not alone is skipping the guidelines. Georgia, where restrictions were irresponsibly lifted, and Texas, where restrictions were eased, are seeing the number of new COVID-19 cases climb again. But neither state is cracking down yet. Sweden, Germany and South Korea are seeing a similar spike in cases with loosened restrictions.
Tuesday, Broward commissioners initially struggled between the rock of a stalled economy and the hard place of exposing more people to the virus.
Ditto for Miami-Dade commissioners, Miami city officials and Mayor Francis Suarez, who has taken it slow in reopening city parks and other public places.
Beach challenges
Wednesday, Miami Beach commissioners will tackle the issue of whether to go along with Miami-Dade and Broward on Monday.
“Our challenge remains: How does a community, whose business model is premised on large crowds, thrive without crowds?” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told the Editorial Board. “Some on my commission want to follow the county, others are prepared to go slower. My view is that our city needs to lag behind the county as we are unlike most other areas. Gelber’s priorities are solid.
As Florida and other states prepare to open, at Tuesday’s first virtual U.S. congressional hearing on the reopening of America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other national health experts warned senators of serious consequences of opening too soon.
As restrictions begin to ease, Fauci warned, there are real risks in opening states, regions and communities at this time. They could attract more “pain and suffering,” he said.
“A little spike might turn into an outbreak you can’t control,” he told senators.
In South Florida, and the state, testing will be key, as will be enforcement of the rules of the new normal. And, testing stations, finally, are more available in the region. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez told reporters that thet number of cases continues to climb because of more testing. Gimenez added that the number of hospitalizations has gone down in Miami-Dade, which is a sign of progress in flattening the curve.
But it’s a fragile, tentative win that could still turn into a costly loss. After reopening, elected officials should be responsible enough to reverse course if the numbers demand it.