With options limited, Miami-Dade tries a PR campaign to combat latest COVID spike

Miami-Dade has a new slogan for its COVID-19 fight as the county government faces a third spike in cases without the enforcement tools it wielded during the prior two.

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava unveiled the “We Can We Will” campaign at a press conference Tuesday where she also acknowledged the county could use some stronger measures to combat a surge in cases overlapping with the higher risks from indoor gatherings during the holiday season. “Fines would be nice,” she said when asked what local powers she’d like Gov. Ron DeSantis to return to local governments during the pandemic.

DeSantis stripped cities and counties of their most used enforcement powers in September, when he suspended the collection of fines for violating COVID-19 orders and barred regulators from requiring any business to close to prevent coronavirus spread. That decree forced Miami-Dade to reopen bars and nightclubs and all but ended the county’s issuing of mask citations.

Miami-Dade’s curfew, now set at midnight, did survive the DeSantis order, though a Miami Gardens strip club briefly had it struck down before the county revived the curfew during an appeals court fight.

Levine Cava said Miami-Dade is reviving its mask enforcement this month but is also emphasizing the power of public relations in the county’s latest COVID measure. Using county communications staff, her administration unveiled a public-service campaign revolving around the motto “We Can Adapt. We Will Thrive.”

The materials feature people complying with COVID rules or heeding recommendations, such as a woman jogging with a mask on under the heading “Spend Time Safely Outdoors.”

“We will celebrate our residents and businesses who are doing the right thing,” Levine Cava said during the online press conference, which fell on her ninth day of isolation after she and her husband, a Coral Gables doctor, tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 30.

Miami-Dade hospitals this week reported more than 800 patients with COVID-19, roughly double from where hospitalizations were at the start of November. This is the third steady rise in COVID admissions in Miami-Dade, following one in the spring when hospitalizations peaked at under 700 and one in the summer when they crossed 2,000.

Elected Nov. 3 to lead Florida’s largest local government, Levine Cava said she’s been unable to speak to DeSantis about the state’s role in slowing coronavirus spread in Florida’s most active hot spot. Levine Cava and city mayors want DeSantis to back off his restrictions on local COVID powers and allow the Miami area to bring back tickets with fines for not wearing masks.

“United, we do have to send one message,” Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández said during the press conference. “I wish we could get more help from the state. And maybe somewhere down the line we’ll all have to unite...and make a statement. The mixed messages we’re getting from the state, I think, are making our jobs harder.”