MIAMI – Leaders are seeing some positive signs within Miami-Dade County’s battle against COVID-19.
“We’re now seeing a flattening,” City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said Friday on CNN. “We got the information today that we were at 17 new cases per day [in the city], so that’s a significant flattening, but we are not in a decline yet.”
Suarez noted the highpoint for his city was seeing 125 cases per day on July 10.
During his visit to Miami-Dade County on Thursday, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said he thinks the county could have itself turned around within the next month or so.
Suarez said Friday that that might be a little optimistic.
“There is improvement, but it’s gradual right now,” Suarez said. “And I don’t know that it will be fast enough unless we implement other measures.”
On Friday, 3,362 new cases of COVID-19 were reported across Miami-Dade, which represents one of the county’s largest daily totals, as the state passed 400,000 cases.
County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said that he feels Miami-Dade’s numbers are starting to top off, though he repeated his resounding message — wear your mask.
“To us, to me, it’s more important about the positivity rate,” Gimenez. “The positivity rate has been starting to decline. That’s good.”
Here is today's New Normal Dashboard, showing a 19.2% positivity rate. We're still working hard to continue to tamp down cases and urge you to protect those loved ones living in your same household who are at high risk of suffering from COVID-19. https://t.co/VYb7pL5oTu
— Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez (@MayorGimenez) July 24, 2020
He also gave an update on hospitalizations.
“There were about 2,200 folks who were in the hospital with COVID-19. We have about 500 that are in ICU beds, and there are about 300 that are on ventilators,” Gimenez said.
Of the two new federally funded COVID-19 testing sites set to open in Miami-Dade County, the one at Miami Jackson Senior High School was still setting up Friday and won’t open until Saturday.
The other site at the Miami-Dade Auditorium opened Thursday and was toured by the surgeon general.
While here, Adams reiterated to residents the importance of wearing a face mask. And for those not doing that, Miami Dade is handing out $100 fines.
The City of Miami again modified its fine structure for disobeying the order to wear facial coverings in public. The first two offenses come with $100 fines, and on the third you’re now looking at a possible arrest/notice to appear.
Officers appearing to be in plain clothing have been seen citing people outside a North Miami Beach Publix for violating the county mask order. There are even fines for wearing a mask, but not properly.