Spring Break in Florida: Crowds Go to South Florida, While Some Residents Worry About Another Wave of Covid-19

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(CNN) – Veronica Pena says she has spent the past year carefully navigating the Covid-19 pandemic in the state of Florida, without restrictions. The Miami Beach resident stopped going to bars, rehearses regularly and has a circle of friends with whom she interacts, who are as cautious as she is.
Now, while waiting to get the Covid-19 vaccine, Pena has a new self-imposed restriction: she won’t venture anywhere near areas like South Beach, which have been full of spring mills often without masks. looking for a carefree vacation. – and an escape from restrictions still in place in other parts of the country.

“I don’t see anyone taking any precautions,” Pena, 32, told CNN. “No one wears masks, no one socially distances themselves.”

Images from the South Florida spring holiday season offer little indication that a deadly virus continues to spread across the country. Last week, there were an average of about 54,600 new cases and more than 1,000 virus-related deaths each day in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Visitors from across the United States have flocked to some of the state’s most popular beaches during the day and mingled in bars and restaurants at night. About 100 people were arrested in Miami Beach last weekend after police responded to undisciplined crowds, local officials said.

“You see those images of people crowded into bars, for example, mostly indoors, without masks, basically without physical distances,” said Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida. “This simply creates a sadly ideal situation for Covid’s transmission.”

And crowds show few signs of shrinking, with the Miami Beach police chief saying visitors have multiplied in recent weeks, and the trend will continue through April.

Pena is not only worried about catching the virus. Like local officials and experts, he says he worries that crowds could cause spikes and devastation in his community and country, something he experienced first-hand when he lost his grandmother to the virus in October.

“I am afraid of more deaths, as I have witnessed and been a part of the Covid victims,” he said. “We are losing people left and right, because of negligence and disregard.”

Residents of South Florida, CNN, spoke with the same concern and added that they understand the difficult decisions of government leaders as they try to balance the desire for a healthy economy with the security of a community. But, according to several residents, they would like the state to welcome visitors in a safer way, with stricter enforcement of violators of the rules.

People are having fun on Ocean Drive on March 19, 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida

People are having fun on Ocean Drive on March 19, 2021 in Miami Beach, Florida

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

“It doesn’t look good”

Emily Arcia, who lives in Miami, said for months that she left home only when absolutely necessary, taking only outdoor walks with her husband on the beach and only after getting ready with masks and gloves.

Although she has been completely vaccinated, her husband has just received his first shot and going outside, especially now, puts the couple back on their nerves.

“I live right in front of the ocean, I live next to a park and it’s full,” Arcia, 66, said. “I’m not even going down on Saturdays and Sundays, because there are too many people.”

During the moments when Covid-19 cases arose in the community, he could hear the sirens of the first responders from his balcony, at a much more frequent pace than normal. It is a marker that he fears will reappear.

“I have no idea what can be done to avoid what I think will be a rebound in cases,” he said. “I hope the number of vaccines that are being provided … is somehow a balance. But, you know, it doesn’t look good.”

And not only the state can see consequences.

“It’s not just about what’s going to happen in Florida,” says emergency physician Leana Wen. “It’s about what will happen when people come back from where they came from and become asymptomatic carriers who can transmit the virus to other vulnerable people.”

According to her, returning spring breakers could fuel growth across the country.

About 12% of the Florida population has been completely vaccinated, according to CDC data. In the US, about 13% of the population is completely vaccinated.
A large crowd of people take part in a party on a catwalk near the beach, during the spring break in Miami Beach on March 20, 2021

A large crowd of people take part in a party on a catwalk near the beach, during the spring break in Miami Beach on March 20, 2021

Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

Local leaders fear that progress will be lost

Florida has reported more than 2 million infections and more than 32,700 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
Local leaders across the state have opted to issue their own restrictions, including curfews and mask warrants. But a few days ago, DeSantis signed an executive order canceling all pandemic-related fines imposed by local municipalities between March 1, 2020 and March 10, 2021.
Some Florida officials say it’s been a long, hard road to getting their Covid-19 numbers to trend in the right direction. They fear that carefree tourists, along with highly contagious variants circulating now, and still a low number of fully vaccinated residents, could eliminate this progress.
An overview of the people partying in the Elbo Room on Fort Lauderdale Beach on March 14, 2021

An overview of people partying in the Elbo Room on Fort Lauderdale Beach on March 14, 2021

Larry Marano / Shutterstock

“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy and lowered all of our key indicators,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told CNN on Thursday. “Breakbviamente, the spring break entails a flood of tourists and they may not think as conscientiously as the people who stay here and have to deal with the repercussions later.”

Gelber, in Miami Beach, is also scared. “We have too many people coming in who want to let go unacceptably and we have a pandemic that really includes the center of the variant,” he said recently.

This variant, B.1.1.7, already accounts for 20 to 30 percent of all current infections in the country and that number is growing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said Friday. add that probably associated with an “increase in the severity of the disease.” Other recent research suggests that the variant may also be associated with an increased risk of dying from Covid-19.
The state with the highest number of reported cases of the variant, according to the CDC, is Florida.

And experts, including Wen, have warned that as high levels of infection persist as the country works to vaccinate more Americans, the virus is more likely to continue to mutate and more worrying variants may emerge, which would not only be more transmissible, but they also pose a problem for vaccines.

“So the more community there is, the more these variants could be developed and that could push us back,” Wen said.

CNN’s Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

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