Ryan Nicol
Miami-Dade County has now eclipsed the 20,000 mark of confirmed COVID-19 cases. The county hits the milestone the same day beaches were permitted to reopen.
Miami-Dade County has now seen 20,277 confirmed positive tests since the COVID-19 crisis began. The county alone — Florida’s most populous — accounts for 30% of all confirmed cases in the state.
Despite an uptick in the state’s daily confirmed cases in the past week, officials have moved forward with reopening plans in Miami-Dade and elsewhere.
The state has now seen eight straight days of at least 1,000 new cases. That’s the longest streak since the outbreak began.
That uptick is driven in part due to the state’s significant increase in testing capacity.
Florida saw a streak of six straight days of 1,000 cases in late March and early April. However, as Florida Politics has noted, the state was only testing 10,000 individuals per day at that time. Officials are now averaging nearly four times as many daily tests.
Despite Miami-Dade being disproportionately affected by the crisis, the region’s hospital system retained bed capacity throughout the outbreak’s peak. Now that a smaller proportion of tests is coming back positive, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez and other officials have felt comfortable moving forward with the state’s Phase One reopening plan.
Miami-Dade — as well as Broward and Palm Beach — have lagged behind the rest of the state in terms of reopening. That’s because the region has served as the hotspot of the outbreak. Broward and Palm Beach sit second and third, respectively, in terms of the counties with the most confirmed cases.
Beaches in Miami-Dade opened Wednesday after originally being scheduled to open June 1. The delay was due to a countywide curfew installed to help protect the region against rioters who infiltrated protests against the killing of George Floyd. That curfew has since been lifted.
The county also reopened dance studios, gyms, short-term vacation rentals and summer camps this past Monday.
