Statement from Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez on additional closures related to COVID-19 surge

I am continuing to roll back business openings as we continue to see a spike in the percent of positive COVID-19 tests and an uptick in hospitalizations. 

I am signing an emergency order that will close restaurants (except for takeout and delivery services), along with ballrooms, banquet facilities, party venues, gyms and fitness centers, and short-term rentals. These closings, among others that will be included in the order, will be effective Wednesday, July 8, 2020. We want to ensure that our hospitals continue to have the staffing necessary to save lives. 

At this time, I plan to keep open various outdoor activities, including condominium and hotel pools with strict social distancing and masks rules, as well as summer camps and child daycare centers with strict capacity limits, requiring masks and social distancing of at least 6 feet. 

Beaches will be open on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, but, if we see crowding and people not following the public health rules, I will be forced to close the beaches again. 

Office buildings, retail stores and grooming services will remain open for now. 

The 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Countywide curfew will remain in force with exceptions for essential workers and for people who have a religious obligation.

We are still tracking the spike in the number of cases involving 18- to 34-year-olds that began in mid-June, which the County’s medical experts say was caused by a number of factors, including young people going to congested places — indoors and outside — without taking precautions such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Contributing to the positives in that age group, the doctors have told me, were graduation parties, gatherings at restaurants that turned into packed parties in violation of the rules and street protests where people could not maintain social distancing and where not everyone was wearing facial coverings. 

We can tamp down the spread if everyone follows the rules, wears masks and stays at least six feet apart from others. I am counting on you, our 2.8 million residents, to stop the spread so that we can get back to opening our economy. 

Do your part. Report violations by calling 305-4-POLICE.

And if you don’t have to go out, remember, you are safer at home.