Miami shuts down: Events canceled, leaders quarantined as fear of coronavirus grows

If there was any semblance of normalcy remaining in Miami-Dade County on Thursday morning, it vanished throughout the day as major events were canceled, cities declared emergencies and high-ranking officials self-quarantined, fearing exposure to the novel coronavirus.

It was a stunning halt of business as usual in a region at the height of its events and tourism season, shaken by the announcement Wednesday night of the county’s first confirmed positive case of the COVID-19 virus and the World Health Organization’s declaration of a global pandemic.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is going to be a tremendous downsizing of our economy,” Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo said Thursday morning during a commission meeting.

Hours later, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez declared a state of emergency. He also said he was self-isolating after learning an aide to the president of Brazil had tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a reception in Miami with state and local officials, including Suarez.

“If I have any symptoms, I’ll certainly get tested, just like anybody else would,” Suarez said.

County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who declared his own countywide state of emergency Wednesday, also self-isolated because he attended the reception with Brazil’s president, who was reportedly awaiting test results.

The changing narrative in South Florida reflected a more urgent tone from above. In a dramatic escalation of the state’s coronavirus response, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital Thursday and urged the cancellation of large events statewide.

DeSantis said it was time for Florida to combat the spread of COVID-19 by reducing gatherings and encouraging people to keep their distance from each other.

“We need to increase social-distancing measures,” he said, using a term that refers to maintaining a distance of six feet from other people, as well as “remaining out of congregate settings” and avoiding “mass gatherings,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When the day began, large-scale events like the county Youth Fair, the Jazz in the Gardens music festival and the Miami Open tennis tournament were all still expected to take place this month. But that all changed rapidly.

Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, who had advocated for Jazz in the Gardens to continue Wednesday night, changed his tune Thursday morning, announcing the event had been canceled.

Gimenez then used his authority at the county level to nix the Youth Fair, the Miami Open, and all concerts at AmericanAirlines Arena — where the remainder of the Miami Heat season was already in jeopardy after the NBA suspended the season.

Meanwhile, the local tourism industry, which had already seen double-digit blows to hotel and airline bookings compared to a year ago, got more bad news. In Miami Beach, where officials had invited college students to spend their spring breaks just one week earlier, Mayor Dan Gelber said Thursday that the city was suspending special-event permits for large gatherings, including spring break concerts in South Beach.

“We are trying to really limit the activity that is happening,” Gelber said. “We have an amazing hospitality industry ... that has restaurants and bars and venues and cultural institutions, all of whom are in the business of creating gatherings and creating crowds. So for us this has been an especially difficult challenge.”

Representatives for Unite Here Local 355, the county’s lone hospitality union, said they’re receiving an “overwhelming” number of complaints about workers’ hours getting cut due to lower demand.

“Hours are plummeting,” said Wendi Walsh, the union’s secretary-treasurer, “and there’s no particular end in sight.”

Miami Beach was part of a wave of municipal governments, including Doral, Miami Gardens and Sunny Isles Beach, to cancel local events and declare states of emergency Thursday, authorizing administrators to take certain unilateral actions without prior approval of elected officials.

The declaration in Miami Beach means that, for 72 hours, City Manager Jimmy Morales has the power to impose curfews, close public spaces and even ban alcohol sales, if he chooses. The city’s beaches will stay open for now.

“We’re not yet at that point, but certainly it’s something we think about as we move forward,” Morales said.

Even small gatherings are likely to become uncommon. Sunny Isles Beach, for example, suspended “all public gatherings” Thursday. North Miami officials said the city’s public library would shut down Friday until further notice. And North Bay Village canceled “all non-essential village events” for the next 30 days.

Still, the region’s public schools continued to hold out. Miami-Dade and Broward County school officials both said they will remain open under normal operations, although in Broward County, where seven people have confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, Superintendent Robert Runcie announced that all after-school activities are canceled.

Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho disagreed with that choice, keeping after-school programs running.

“We feel that it sends a disconnected message to our community of learners, parents and students if we are maintaining our school system open” but not continuing after-school activities, he said.

“It’s business as usual,” Carvalho said.

Miami Dade College canceled classes for two weeks, then will transition to online learning, a step many colleges and universities are taking. All events have been canceled college-wide.

Some South Florida shows will go on, including “Hamilton” at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and “Mean Girls” at the Broward Center. In an email Thursday evening, Arsht Center president and CEO Johann Zietsman said most performances are continuing as scheduled and “refunds are not being offered.”

“I know we will all use our best judgment regarding safety precautions,” Zietsman said, “and I hope you will continue to enjoy the activities that make our world connected.”

The number of confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade County could rise in the coming days. More testing kits, which have been in short supply, are en route to South Florida, according to DeSantis.

The governor said Thursday that the state had purchased 2,500 commercially available kits, and he anticipated those would be distributed to about 50 labs throughout the state, including at hospitals.

Those kits would add the capacity to test for 625,000 people, he said.

Miami Herald staff writers Douglas Hanks, Joey Flechas, Colleen Wright, Martin Vassolo, Samantha J. Gross, Lautaro Grinspan, Carli Teproff and Ben Conarck contributed to this report.