Spencer Fordin
The city of Miami Beach is again taking drastic measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Miami Beach announced Wednesday that it will extend its State of Emergency and update its emergency measures to include a curfew and late-night restrictions on sales of alcohol and food. Those measures kick in Thursday morning at 12:01 a.m. and will continue until further notice.
Starting on Thursday after midnight, Miami Beach will impose a nightly curfew from 12:30 to 5 a.m. with exceptions for fire, police and hospital personnel. Food delivery service and essential travel for medical services, treatment or medication will also be permitted after curfew.
In addition, all retail stores are prohibited from from selling alcoholic beverages after 8 p.m. in all zoning districts. That restriction will apply to package liquor stores, grocery stores, convenience stores and service stations that sell alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption.
Restaurants are required to close for both dine-in and take-out services between 12:01 a.m. and 6:00 a.m., but they may continue to sell food via delivery service overnight.
Miami-Dade County had another 1,141 confirmed cases of COVID-19 Monday, and a total of 37,961 people have tested positive within the county.
The city originally imposed its State of Emergency on March 12. Last week, city manager Jimmy Morales announced the city’s emergency measures would continue through July 1.
Miami-Dade County Order 25-20 requires hotels to close their pools between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. from July 3 through July 6.
The city created an enforcement group dubbed HEET — Hospitality Education and Enforcement Team — dedicated to ensuring local businesses are abiding by all emergency measures. The HEET group includes personnel from police, fire prevention, code compliance and ocean rescue.
