Coronavirus In Miami-Dade: Mayor Gimenez Begins Outlining His 'New Normal Initiative' For Reopening The County
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is working on a plan to reopen the County as part of his "New Normal Initiative" and determine a time when that might happen in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
During an online news conference Friday, Gimenez said his first step is to put a task force together to figure out with health officials how to begin relaxing restrictions.
"I'll speak to the medical community about the timing of it. I don't have a time table. I want it to be as soon as possible. As soon as we can safely do it I want to start easing restrictions," he said.
The Mayor said he hopes to hold his first virtual town hall as early as Monday to hear from residents about how they feel about starting to open up the county.
In the meantime, no bans are being lifted at this time and he is reminding everyone to stay safer at home and continue to wear facial masks while out in the public.
As far as his New Normal Initiative, he says they are looking at three phases to open parks and phases to open boating, beaches and golf.
"Each phase would occur when the medical experts say it is appropriate based on the spread of the virus being contained. There's a light at the end of the tunnel and the medical experts agree that parks can be open for passive activities such as walking, running, biking, and jumping rope. These open air activities are good for people's physical and mental health, However, for seniors and those with medical conditions would be recommended to wear a mask if they go outside.
"Other park activities that could be allowed in the first phase would be singles tennis and having no more than one person practicing, let's say a racquetball court. Groups of ten or more would not be allowed. Police would be enforcing these rules with zero tolerance."
Contact sports, such as basketball, baseball, soccer and football will not be allowed and gyms would continue to be closed.
"There's no way to practice social distancing and limit the spread of the virus in those kinds of activities."
For boaters, vessels would have to remain 50 feet apart at all times and there would be no drafting of the boats and no tying up of boats at Stiltsville.
"There would be a capacity limits for all boats. For example, a 25-foot boat would have no more than four adults on that vessel to be able to have social distancing," he said. "For commercial fishing operations, there will be no more than six people allowed including the captain and a mate, taking into account the boats capacity. "
Marina ramps would be open during certain hours that are not yet finalized.
He is still discussing the opening of beaches under certain limited conditions.
WATCH ENTIRE VIRTUAL PRESS CONFERENCE HERE:
For golf, rental cars would have to be disinfected and only one golfer allowed in a cart at a time. Players could walk instead. Clubhouse staff would wear masks and dining rooms and stores would remain closed.
"Again, we're starting to plan for a new normal based on the recommendations of medical experts. There is no start date for any of these openings yet."
Gimenez also says helping unemployed residents remains a top priority and the County library started a new service Friday to help people who are out of work. The 26 County libraries are now distributing applications for the state's SNAP food program as well as for Medicaid. They also continue to take applications for state unemployment benefits.
"So far, they distributed almost 84,000 applications and received almost 20,000 signed forms, which we then sent back to the state."
To find out which library is closest to you. Call 305-375-2665 or visit miamidade.gov/coronavirus
Saturday, April 18, a new drive-through food distribution program takes place at Tropical Park.
The County has also delivered more than one million meals to homebound seniors.
As for social distancing, Mayor Gimenez said he doesn't think we are "going to see social distancing rules be cut back until we have a vaccine, looking at about a year from now until we actually do that."
As for tourism, he said that's a question further down the road.
"We're just trying to open up Miami-Dade and then the issue of the hotels and then tourism, etc. I think part of the solution will be with additional testing, and then maybe testing at the point of origin. Right now our airports are only running around 5,000 to 6,000 passengers a day so that's an issue for later on.
