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City Of Miami Begins Handing Out Civil Fines To Those Not Wearing Masks

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The possibility of a shutdown is still on the table in the city of Miami. But for now, stepped-up mask enforcement began across the city on Monday.

"It's a very difficult decision. Obviously, we are consulting with our hospital administrators and we've put in a set of remedial measures that have shown some diminishment of the increase," said Mayor Francis Suarez.

At a news conference Friday, he said he wasn't planning on it. He added that talks of one happening were rumors.

Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease specialist with FIU, believes all options should remain on the table.

"If we don't see that by Monday, Tuesday, then yeah it's possible we may have to enact further measures," she said on Friday.

Leaders and health experts have been encouraging people to wear facial coverings to help numbers fall.

City of Miami officers are cracking down on people without masks. Monday marked the first official day of fines in the city.

"We are hoping that the heavy enforcement will help us more dramatically reduce the curve from what we've been seeing over the last 10 days," said Suarez on CNN.

Commander Freddie Cruz said more than 50 civil citations have been handed out.

A first offense starts at $50, but a third citation is $500.

"We want to control this and the only way to do it is by conducting some type of enforcement. Everybody has to wear their mask," said Cruz.

Miami-Dade police began its crackdown with fines last week on Thursday.

As of Monday morning, police said 115 civil citations had been handed out for not following emergency orders.

If county police officers hand out a citation, that's an automatic $100 or community service.

"I've been calling for a federal mask in public rule and a statewide mask in public rule," said Suarez.

The county is still seeing worrisome data.

Close to 2,300 people are in the hospital. More than 500 of those are in the ICU. That means the county's ICU is at 130% capacity.

"We are seeing a tremendous amount of spread within the home, from one person to more than one person in the home," said Suarez.

The Florida Department of Health reports the county has a percent positive rate near 23. That's well above the goal of getting below 10.

"The fire that's completely a wildfire and out of control. We have 513 people in ICU in Miami-Dade County alone. We are completely swamped," Dr. Aileen Marty said Monday night on CNN.

She fears the pandemic could greatly impact the economy, like our food supply.

"We have a perfect storm of problems. We have a rip roaring, out of control outbreak, specifically in South Florida," she said.

Just like Mayor Suarez, Dr. Marty said more has to be done outside of south Florida to help slow the spread.

"We all in the state of Florida, in the country, in our individual communities need to come together and have a national strategy," she said.

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