Related
MIAMI (WSVN) - President Donald Trump announced the federal plan for reopening the country, as health care workers continue to fight the coronavirus. The final say, however, for when and how anything reopens rests with state and local leaders.
Several businesses across South Florida are eager to reopen their stores and restaurants, but local leaders do not believe this will take place within the next few weeks.
“We cannot keep our local businesses closed forever. We will need to get back to work. But how we emerge, it trickier for us.” We’ll do it with the input of health professionals who will tell us, ‘This makes sense,'” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said, “I don’t think you’re going to see social distancing cut aback until we have a vaccine. You’re looking at about a year from now until we could actually do that.”
Across South Florida, the consensus is to keep current measures and stay at home orders in place.
“Any form of opening should be phased,” said City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. “I also agree with another point that he made, which is that the governors should also be empowered to make a lot of the decisions.”
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said the city is already looking at protocols for different businesses once city leaders and health professionals determine it’s safe to ease back some regulations.
“We have already started that task,” said Trantalis. “We’re looking to see how we can open some of our restaurants, some of our gyms.”
Small businesses are eager to be back up and running as soon as possible, which Alicia Riily, who owns Shores Cleaners and Laundry says depends on the local leaders.
“Whatever they tell us, that’s what we’ll do for the safety of everybody,” she said.
Raquel Afriat said, “The parks, and some beaches should reopen now if we respect social distancing.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference Friday that what works for one part of the state may not work in others. He said he plans to work with mayors across South Florida to decide what’s best for the region.
“I’m going to work with them to figure out what they think makes the most sense, in terms of this next phase,” he said.
Other mayors said they are going to look to the counties for leadership. They said because the municipalities are so close to one another, they want to do things together to prevent a separate outbreak.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.