Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
PALM BEACH REOPENS
Broward leaders yearn to reopen, but others see risks
The push to reopen is gaining momentum in Broward County even as some warn about the dangers of moving too quickly and causing a spike in coronavirus cases.
Fort Lauderdale leaders, for one, are eager to see their city come to life again.
“Why we’re not reopening today is beyond me,” Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Heather Moraitis said Monday at a city meeting. “It’s been eight weeks [since] we’ve asked our people to sit inside, to stay at home. But we have an economic problem. Our economy is really hurting.”
Palm Beach County began its Phase 1 reopening on Monday. After being closed for nearly two months, hair and nail salons began humming with customers from Boca Raton to
Leah Kappen and Zach Bishop, left, chat with bartender Samantha Pelaez at Kapow Noodle Bar in Boca Raton on Monday.
West Palm Beach. And Miami-Dade County is gearing up to do the same on Monday, May 18.
Broward officials plan to meet Tuesday to discuss when to jump on the bandwagon. Gov. Ron DeSantis says Broward could open as soon as May 18, but some county commissioners have argued that’s too soon. They worry that within weeks, the county could see a surge in cases of COVID-19.
In the meantime, Broward’s 31 cities are in limbo until the county gives the green light.
“We are sort of being left in the dust here because our neighbors to the north and south are on a trajectory to reopen,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said. “We need protocols in place before we reopen. I have not seen any protocols from our county. If we don’t have a plan for people to follow, people are going to make their own plan.”
Broward Mayor Dale V.C. Holness said Monday he thinks it makes the most sense for his county to reopen at the same time as Miami-Dade.
“I believe we ought to do it with them at the same time,” Holness said. “It won’t be very good to be in the middle and north is open and south is open and we’re not. We’re going to
end up [with] many of our residents [headed] north and south to do businesses and our businesses will be left out.”
Critics have urged government officials not to be too quick to reopen lest they see a surge in cases.
A big gamble?
As cities and states begin to return to normalcy, it could take time to know the impact of phased reopenings and whether they lead to new coronavirus cases and deaths.
Experts say it can take as long as three weeks to show any increase in the number of infections. That’s because it takes time for individuals to infect others and for them to display symptoms. Medical experts have warned against a second wave of infections and deaths if states start to reopen before seeing a downward trajectory of positive cases in a 14-day period.
Some think we are opening too early in Florida.
That includes Dr. Roderick King, CEO for the Florida Institute for Health Innovation and an associate professor at University of Miami’s medical school.
“The challenge for us in Florida is we are behind the 8-ball,” King said. “We need more aggressive testing and contact tracing.
“We aren’t doing much of either right now. Since we
don’t have a vaccine, and we’re still trying to find out how it spreads, the danger of reopening too quickly is we could potentially have another spike from spreads that happen from small groups or gathering coming together.”
Cases here hit a peak around April 6-10 and have been trending downward ever since, King said.
“We will probably have another peak at the end of the summer, August [and] September,” King said. “Shortly after that we go into the flu season and there are some models [that show] we will have another peak in the wintertime. If that happens, then this could drag on till March, easily.”
Fort Lauderdale resident Stan Eichelbaum says he’d rather see the county play it safe and delay its reopening.
“We’ve made great progress and don’t want a recurrence,” he said.
Eichelbaum pointed to news reports about 2,100 bars in South Korea being ordered to close again after a spike in coronavirus cases after the lockdown eased.
Health officials linked 17 new cases to a 29-year-old man who went to three bars in one night, then tested positive for the virus a few days later. Now health workers are attempting to trace the 1,940 people who visited the three same clubs, Eichelbaum said.
Still others are anxious
for life to return to normal.
Running on fumes
Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor Steve Glassman says he hears every day from business and restaurant owners running on fumes. Some have no idea if they will recover or ever open again.
On Monday, he questioned why the county doesn’t have a plan so late in the game.
“We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but what if the county does not listen to us,” Glassman said. “What are our options? Are we stuck with what the county administrator issues?”
In a word, yes.
“We would be under the order of the county administrator,”
City Attorney Alain Boileau said. “Fort Lauderdale does not have a lot of recourse.”
Trantalis advised taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I don’t think we need to be a renegade city and go out and do our own thing,” he said. “Let’s see what happens in the next 24 hours and see what they’re able to do.”
Broward needs to reopen, but rules need to be in place before that happens, Broward Commissioner Mark Bogen said.
“It’s just as contagious as it was three months ago,” Bogen said. “I am in favor of reopening so long as people are required to wear masks or face coverings and [adhere to] social distancing.”
Bogen wants the county to set up a central phone number where people can
report violations. Complaints would be sent to code enforcement officers in the appropriate city.
“Having rules are not effective if they can’t be enforced,” Bogen said.
It’s critical that all 31 cities in Broward follow the county’s reopening date and guidelines, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said.
“The 31 cities have to act consistently,” he said. “Thirty-one cities can’t do different things because residents will just go to that city that opened and go back home later.”
Hollywood is reopening its wide oceanfront Broadwalk on Wednesday between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., but it will be a “new normal” in terms of distancing, Levy said.
“We’re looking to be functional but still control the spread of this virus,” Levy said. “This virus is not going away anytime soon. We can’t stay locked down forever, but we will have to adhere to the new guidelines. It’s the new normal until this is beyond us.”