Ryan Nicol
A curfew will be in effect for Broward County during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, according to Tuesday remarks from Broward Mayor Steve Geller.
The curfew will begin in the early morning of Dec. 25 (Christmas Eve) at 1 a.m. The curfew will be lifted Christmas morning at 5 a.m.
After that, the curfew will run from midnight-5 a.m. — including on Christmas. That midnight-5 a.m. curfew will hold through Jan. 4. The only other exception is New Year’s Eve, when the curfew will run from 1-5 a.m. to give individuals celebrating the New Year some leeway to get home following the stroke of midnight.
Miami-Dade County has also relaxed its midnight curfew for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, pushing it back to 1 a.m. on those days.
Geller announced the move on a Tuesday call with local mayors. He said officials are anticipating a spike in cases after New Year’s and that concern about the burden on hospitals was driving the move.
The decision comes as a federal judge struck down a county rule which barred businesses from selling alcohol from midnight-5 a.m. That rule targeted bars and clubs, where people gathering inside in close proximity can heighten the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
Coronavirus cases in the state have been increasing recently. Broward County’s data is more muddied, in part because they’ve had a fairly consistent number of hospitalizations over the past few weeks. Weeks ago, that number sat relatively higher than its South Florida neighbors — Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Now, more concerning trends are emerging in Miami-Dade as the state’s most populous county is undergoing a more severe spike.
Looking at the week-to-week numbers, deaths and hospitalizations in Broward have held steady. While overall cases are rising, that’s in part due to a rise in testing. Raw cases are up week-to-week but the share of tests coming back positive is down over the previous two weeks.
