Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is switching gears on an announcement he made on Monday about rolling back openings at dine-in restaurants and gyms.
Late Monday night he announced on Twitter dine-in restaurants can continue serving guests using outdoor seating only, after initially announcing dine-in restaurants and gyms would be closed once again.
On Tuesday, the mayor tweeted that, after talking with the county's wellness group and medical experts, gyms can remain open as long as masks and social distancing are implemented.
I had a very productive virtual meeting just now with our medical experts and the County’s Wellness Group. We arrived at a compromise to keep gyms & fitness studios open. All doing activities inside must wear a mask or do strenuous training outside staying 10 feet apart w/outmask
— Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez (@MayorGimenez) July 7, 2020
Banquet halls, ballrooms, party venues and short-term rentals will close again. For now, office buildings, retail stores, salons and barbershops will stay open.
Outdoor activities like condo and hotel pools will remain open with strict social distancing and mask rules. The same goes for summer camps and daycares.
Beaches will reopen on July 7, but the mayor said that if crowding occurs and people are not following health guidelines, he will be forced to close those as well.
The county curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. will also remain in place.
Mayor Gimenez also explained that the county has been tracking the spike in cases involving 18- to 34-year olds that began in mid-June. County medical say was caused by a number of factors, including young people going to congested places, both 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," he said on Monday.