Miami-Dade mayor: COVID spike means time for vaccinated to wear masks indoors again

Faced with an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on Wednesday mandated masks at all county facilities and urged businesses to require facial coverings indoors, too.

“The numbers are clear,” Levine Cava said at a press conference outside the county’s Stephen P. Clark Center in downtown Miami. “We hope that businesses will do the right thing.”

While Levine Cava’s predecessor, Carlos Gimenez, imposed detailed operational rules and restrictions for businesses during the 2020 COVID spikes, those executive powers were blocked last fall by Gov. Ron DeSantis and then by the Florida Legislature earlier this year. The new state law limits emergency orders to seven days without a vote by local city or county commission, and gives DeSantis veto power over orders deemed too restrictive of individual rights.

Levine Cava’s reimposing mask rules at county buildings followed a string of similar steps across Florida after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reversed prior guidance on facial coverings. In May, the agency said vaccinated people could safely go maskless indoors. Now the CDC says vaccinated people should wear masks indoors when they’re in areas where COVID is spreading. Like most of Florida, the CDC lists Miami-Dade as having the highest level of community transmission of COVID-19.

Levine Cava used her power as the county’s top administrator to mandate masks at libraries, recreational centers, county-owned entertainment venues and offices, rules that apply to employees and visitors. Federal restrictions already require masks at transportation centers, including transit stations and airports.

The announcement reverses Levine Cava’s May 13 directive that lifted mask rules in county facilities. That loosening followed the lead of the CDC, which declared then that vaccinated people could feel secure going about their days without wearing masks.

About one out of every 10 COVID-19 tests are coming back positive in Miami-Dade, according to the latest statistics from the mayor’s office, up from a positivity rate of less than 3% in the middle of June. Jackson Health System, the county’s public hospital, reported 209 patients with COVID-19 this week. That’s more than triple what the hospital saw at the start of the month.

After Levine Cava’s press conference, Miami-Dade’s judicial system announced the revival of its mask mandate for all court buildings. Miami Beach said masks are now required in city buildings as well. In Miami, the county’s largest city, administrators tightened the mask policy this week to focus on the unvaccinated segment of the 4,000-person workforce.

After urging employees to wear masks in May, now the city will require them — unless employees show proof of vaccination or have a legal exemption.

“We have been operating on the honor system up to now, and we realized that we had very little compliance,” City Manager Art Noriega said.

In Orange County, Mayor Jerry Demings went further, announcing new mask rules for government facilities as well as a requirement that all non-union county employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of August.

The Levine Cava administration said it does not track vaccination status for a county payroll with more than 29,000 positions, but a spokesperson said a survey is coming. On Wednesday, Miami Beach revealed less than 30% of the city’s workers had been vaccinated, according to a voluntary survey.

Other local leaders joined Levine Cava in urging Miami-Dade residents to get vaccinated for COVID-19, and laid at least part of the current crisis at the feet of the unvaccinated.

“It’s a little frustrating to be sitting here a year later,” said Carlos Hernández, the mayor of Hialeah. “It is sad when I see the tourist buses stop in Hialeah to get the vaccine, yet some ... for whatever reason — religious beliefs, political beliefs, misinformation, whatever it is — have chosen not to get vaccinated.”

Miami-Dade has the highest vaccination rate in Florida, according to state statistics, with about 76% of residents 12 and over vaccinated with at least one dose. It still reported more than 11,000 new COVID cases last week, the highest in Florida.

Last year also saw a summer spike of COVID cases, with wider community spread since vaccines had not yet been developed. The national spike in COVID cases follows the spread of mutated versions of the virus, with the Delta variant now driving infections.

Vaccines reduce the risk of infection, and also drastically lower the chances of getting seriously ill from COVID-19. Of the 209 Jackson patients with COVID, the hospital said 89.5% are unvaccinated.

Jose “Pepe” Diaz, the county commission’s chairman, announced earlier this month he contracted COVID after being fully vaccinated in the spring. “I just finished going through the Delta variant,” he told reporters Wednesday. “If I hadn’t gotten the shot and still got the variant, who knows what could have happened.”

While Florida law restricts emergency orders impacting business operations, Levine Cava said she was planning to revive an old order mandating daily hospital reports. That order was canceled May 28 as COVID cases were in retreat, ending a key metric for countywide spread. Miami-Dade relies on Florida’s Health Department for COVID statistics on cases and positivity rate, but those are only released weekly.

Levine Cava said she’s signed the new order requiring hospitals to resume daily reports on patients with COVID, COVID admissions in critical-care wards, and the availability of ventilators.

At the Levine Cava press conference, speakers included a restaurant owner who recently resumed mask requirements at her Italian bistro. Macchialina owner Jacqueline Pirolo urged people to get vaccinated and start wearing masks inside again to reverse the current spread.

“Miami: Let’s all come together and make this a priority,” she said. “As an industry, we cannot afford another closure.“

This article was updated to correct the COVID-19 vaccination rate in Miami-Dade County.

Miami Herald staff writers Joey Flechas and Martin Vassolo contributed to this report.