Florida Keys May Close Again, Beaches Now Off Limits

Miami’s PBS affiliate reports:

Spiking coronavirus numbers in the Florida Keys are causing consternation among public officials, and questions about whether the county will once again close to visitors.

“We were fortunate for the time we had the checkpoint up and you saw what the results were. We did a really good job. The community was behind it,” Bob Eadie, administrator of the Monroe County office of the state Department of Health, said at an emergency management update meeting on Monday.

“Now it’s like with the checkpoint off, it’s almost like it’s business as it used to be. And the thing is that it’s not. We are really in the position now of what are we going to do because we are teetering on the edge of having a real huge outbreak.”

USA Today reports:

Several counties in South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe (home to the Florida Keys) are closing their beaches for the July 4th holiday weekend as part of a statewide effort to get control over the state’s spiking COVID-19 infection rate.

The Florida Department of Health reported 5,266 new confirmed cases of COVID Monday, the sixth consecutive day in which at least 5,000 new cases have been announced, and 28 more deaths, according to Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY network.

The state now has more than 146,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 3,400 deaths. The cases have more than doubled since Florida entered Phase 2 of its reopening plan on June 5.