Mandatory use of masks imposed in Miami-Dade

Miami-Dade authorities established this Wednesday the obligation to use masks both inside and outside public spaces due to the increase in COVID-19 cases and just on the day when The death toll from this disease reached 1,000 people..

The measure will come into force from 9 pm this Thursday, according to a Press release County. "I have signed Amendment 1 to Emergency Order 20-20, which now requires the use of masks in all public places in Miami-Dade County, whether indoors or outdoors," Mayor Carlos Giménez said on Facebook this Thursday.

Miami-Dade is the county with the most accumulated coronavirus cases in Florida, 37,961 of the 158,997 total cases throughout the state, according to data published this Wednesday by the local Health Department.

"The amendment to this order will expand the use of masks outdoors, which have been required when social distancing of six feet (almost two meters) is not possible. The amendment will now require that they always be worn outdoors with few exceptions" Mayor Giménez said in a press release issued Wednesday.

Only people with respiratory conditions that make it difficult to cover their mouth and nose, people who engage in strenuous activities such as jogging, and children under 2 years old will be excluded from the obligation to wear face masks., points out Miami-Dade County about these measures that follow the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

The county is also considering civil penalties for those who fail to comply with this regulation, as is already the case in the city of Miami, where fines can reach $500 and even prison.

As of press time, sanctions in Miami-Dade have not been announced. 1,000 of the 3,550 deaths from COVID-19 in Florida occurred in the county since the start of the pandemic, according to data from health authorities.

Faced with criticism from some citizens about the economic reopening of local businesses, Giménez pointed out that "everything we did to reopen the economy here, to reopen businesses, was done with our medical experts. And the measures we took would guarantee a level of safety." .

Florida has had thousands of new daily cases of COVID-19 for weeks and could become one of the epicenters of the coronavirus in the United States, according to projections made in June by a team of scientists from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.