Florida beaches will close for Fourth of July weekend over coronavirus concerns

Several counties announce beach closures as 9,500 new cases reported on Saturday

Florida authorities will shut-down beaches on the Fourth of July weekend over Covid-19 concerns in the state.

At least three counties including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach plan on closing-down beaches and parks from Friday 3 July to prevent overcrowding as coronavirus cases continue to spike.

In a statement, Miami-Dade County mayor Carols Gimenez condemned those who were not adhering to measures on social-distancing and mask-wearing and appealed to “common sense”.

The mayor also warned that Miami’s beaches and parks could continue to be closed-down.

“As we continue to see more Covid-19 positive test results among young adults and rising hospitalisations, I have decided that the only prudent thing to do to tamp down this recent uptick is to crack down on recreational activities that put our overall community at higher risk,” said Mr Gimenez.

He added that “this new order will be targeting those who are being most irresponsible and endangering our community’s health and our economic recovery.”

All beaches and parks in Miami-Dade County will close between Friday 3 July and Tuesday 7 July, whilst gatherings and parades with more than 50 persons are prohibited.

At the same time, beaches in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County will be closed between Friday 3 July and Sunday 5 July, said mayor Dean Trantalis on Sunday.

“The reason why we’re doing this is because we feel that we will not be able to provide the necessary safe environment that everyone is entitled to enjoy when they come to our beaches,” said Mr Trantalis.

“Our businesses will remain open -- all the restaurants, all the T-shirt shops, all the retail shops -- everything will be open,” he continued. “But, unfortunately, because we normally anticipate large crowds, perhaps even coming from other counties, that we made this decision to move forward.”

Still, crowds lambasted Broward County authorities who made that announcement, with some shouting slogans such as “Freedom” and “This is America”, said CNN.

Palm Beach County mayor Dave Kerner told the news outlet on Sunday that he would also announce plans to shut-down beaches this weekend.

“It is an unfortunate result, but public health remains the focus of the elected leaders of Palm Beach County,” said Mr Kerner. “Unfortunately, this Fourth of July will not be spent at the beach.”

Those announcements came as more than 9,500 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Florida on Saturday, surpassing the previous 24-hour high seen on Friday, which had 9,000 new cases.

Florida has now seen almost new-24 hour highs each day since mid-June, and some 132,000 cases 3,300 deaths overall.