‘We are up against the wall.’ Miami-Dade’s new mayor sounds alarm on COVID surge.

Joined by hospital executives warning of potential staff shortages, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Friday said the county needs residents to comply with COVID rules to avoid a health crisis as she and other leaders so far fail in efforts to get Florida’s governor to allow a tougher local response.

Isolating at home with COVID herself, Levine Cava used the online press conference to draw attention to Miami-Dade’s increasingly alarming coronavirus statistics and invited hospital CEOs to lay out why this surge promises to be harder than the ones that hit in the spring and summer.

“We are up against the wall,” she said. “Given what we have in our tool box, we must, must have full cooperation with all of the precautions that we know work. We are not universally masking in our community today. We are not universally adhering to the curfew. We are not taking full advantage of our testing capacity, which is really significant.”

A nursing shortage in Miami-Dade?

When coronavirus cases strained hospital capacity in the summer, Miami-Dade stood out as one of the country’s COVID hot spots and was able to hire temporary nurses from cities where the coronavirus pandemic remained mild. Now there’s a national spread in cases as much of the country moves into the confined spaces of winter, Miami-Dade doesn’t expect traveling nurses to be available in enough numbers to provide capacity needed for COVID overflow.

“We have at least 30 to 45 challenging days ahead of us,” said Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya, referring to the wave of COVID cases he’s expecting in the next couple of weeks from Thanksgiving gatherings just ahead of a new round of get-togethers for Christmas and Hanukkah. “We can’t afford to get back to the numbers we saw back in July. Because while we may have the beds, we don’t have the staffing. The entire country is having high surges.”

COVID hospitalizations are up 40% from two weeks ago, and about one in 10 COVID tests are coming back positive each day, according to the latest county statistics. The county’s “positivity” rate was just 6% a month ago, and the increase is a sign of community spread.

Miami-Dade mayor can’t reach Florida’s governor

Levine Cava, a Democrat elected Nov. 3 to a non-partisan post, said she still hasn’t been able to get Gov. Ron DeSantis on the phone for a discussion about how his administration could help Florida’s most populous county deal with the state’s most intense COVID outbreak.

“My office has reached out, and we have had a communication with a member of the governor’s staff,” Levine Cava said between coughs, part of what she described as mild COVID symptoms since her Monday diagnosis. “But I have not personally had the opportunity to speak to the governor.”

A Sept. 25 order by DeSantis upended much of Miami-Dade’s COVID plan in place under then-mayor Carlos Gimenez. The directive limited local COVID restrictions, forcing Miami-Dade to reopen bars and nightclubs, and stop collecting fines tied to a countywide mask mandate and a midnight curfew.

Both restrictions remain in place, and fines can still be collected against businesses that violate the rules. But the effective end of fines for individuals brought a sharp drop in mask violations; Miami-Dade police said its officers didn’t write a single mask ticket to a person in November. Local leaders say the decline in mask enforcement has led to less mask wearing.

“I have seniors who feel trapped in their homes,” said Mike Davey, mayor of Key Biscayne. “Because they’ll go out for a short walk, and see people without masks.”

Levine Cava said the county is planning a renewed enforcement push with cities to enforce the curfew and mask rules “diligently” — issuing tickets even if fines are suspended. Miami-Dade police also will be issuing masks to people found not wearing them, she said.

At Levine Cava’s request, the League of Cities is asking members to join in a countywide enforcement effort ahead of the holidays, said Joseph Corradino, the Pinecrest mayor who heads the advocacy group for city governments. “The consensus was for everyone to be consistent,” Corradino said.

Even so, Miami still plans to ignore the county curfew, which is in place inside city limits. Miami City Manager Art Noriega — another public official who is quarantined with COVID — said a resolution passed by city commissioners in October prohibits Miami police from enforcing the county curfew.

“That would have to be amended by the commission,” Noriega told the Miami Herald. He said commissioners might discuss the issue at the Dec. 10 commission meeting.

For now, Corradino said the League has shelved a plan to write DeSantis directly to ask that he allow local governments to be more aggressive in the COVID response. “The consensus was there’s really no point, since there are no plans to shut things down,” he said.

At the press conference, Levine Cava said she and city mayors would be making an “appeal” to DeSantis “that local control be granted” if COVID spread continues to accelerate in Miami-Dade.

The press conference included top executives from hospitals in Miami-Dade, as well as government leaders from the Florida Keys to Palm Beach County. Levine Cava said she’s pushing for the region to speak with “one voice” about COVID, and Miami-Dade will roll out a new advertising campaign next week to reinforce the message. Friday’s theme was relief remains on the horizon from new vaccines heading to Miami and beyond, but residents must stick with severe measures now to get through a dangerous spread of the virus.

“The best thing we can do is postpone all travel over the holidays,” said Dr. Peter Paige, a Jackson administrator who also serves as Levine Cava’s chief medical officer. “My plea at this point is: We really need the public to do its part.”

Miami Herald staff writer Joey Flechas contributed to this report.