MIAMI.-
“Wuhan, now it is us”
days ago, Carlos Giménez, the mayor of Miami-Dade, shot in front of the cameras. He was referring to the focus of infection of
coronavirus that lives in the southern state of
Florida. It also needs to generate a feeling of alert.
But on the beaches, the situation does not seem to alarm many
. Life goes almost normally. In the hottest district in the country, there is no dread or desert streets. There was even a gentle tourism.
Only some are afraid.
The figures are worrying. In early April, Florida logged 1,000 cases a day. Last week, the state held the national record in one day: 15,300 infections. All alarms went on. Deaths are also accelerating. The virus causes an average of 120 deaths each day. Florida exceeds 4,800 dead, according to official figures. 25% of these deaths occur in Miami.
In that context, the county put on a parking brake. The mayor decided to close the interior of the restaurants, banned vacation rentals, added the use of a mandatory mask in open spaces and imposed a curfew at night.
“After several weeks of feeling that we were reaching the final stage of this pandemic, cases began to escalate in an aggressive manner. The situation is critical right now“Gabe Groisman, the mayor of Bal Harbor, one of the most exclusive beaches in the county, points out to the NATION. The authorities began to notice that some restaurants ended up becoming bars (which are still closed).” This occurs when people stays late. So the curfew was put on at night, “he explains.
In two months the situation broke down.
When the quarantine was relaxed, there were young people on vacation, graduation celebrations, street protests, people who did not respect social distance or wear a mask, restaurants that relaxed controls
. “I am not blaming a group. It was a combination of factors basically due to social activity. Young people being young,” Giménez told the governor, Ron DeSantis. With 2.7 million inhabitants,
Miami has more population than 14 states in the country, like New Mexico. Young people began to socialize, and brought the virus to homes. Today 30% of the focus of infections is family.
De Santis had a reassuring speech so far: the cases increase because the tests are also massive (90,000 are made per day, he says). In the state average, the positivity rate ranges 15%. But Miami breaks all barriers: one in four tests is positive.
Exercise
He
mayor
From the city of Miami, Francis Suárez, believes that society should take the issue more seriously. “We closed fast, we did not have the tragedy of
New York, and that reduced the fear factor. People returned to normal activity, “he explains. But the reopening plan did not work as expected. According to him, people aggressively disobeyed and created a scenario in which the virus grew.
Miami, the “southern Manhattan” as some call it, now does not want to look in that mirror. The shadow of New York threatens, but it is still far away. Florida’s total death toll is 15% of those recorded in the Northeast state. While there the daily death toll reached 800, here it is 156. There are no collapsed morgues for now, although last Tuesday the state ordered four refrigerated trucks.
A part of the population pressures for Miami to close. But the county preferred to tighten controls first. An emergency ordinance was passed Thursday that provides for a $ 100 fine for those who do not wear face masks in public. In just one afternoon, 35 citations were issued.
Hospitals are reaching full capacity. Health professionals are lacking. Miami will receive these days a thousand doctors and nurses. A hotel with 350 beds will add places of isolation.
José Gonzales Zamora, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital, confirms a marked increase in hospital admission. “Every day it gets worse. This is something from the last two or three weeks,” he tells LA NACION. In the past two days, the county depleted its two-week remdesivir (drug used to treat Covid-19) doses.
Gonzales Zamora confirms that The situation is critical, although the mortality rate today is lower than at the beginning of the pandemic. “Now it affects younger people, added to the fact that we have learned from the virus and we have more tools to fight it”, Explain.
The hospital began installing a tent with additional beds. The county also called in staff to launch the health hospital that enlisted in April at the Miami Beach Convention Center, steps from pedestrian Lincoln Road. Until now, I had never seen a single patient. We will have to pray that the devil does not put his tail: it is a time of hurricanes, and the island is a place of possible evacuation.
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