Florida Bars Are Allowed To Reopen Again, But Not In Miami

Late on the evening of September 10 Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, announced via Twitter that starting Monday, September 14, Florida bars were allowed to reopen at 50 percent capacity after being shut down since June 26. However, Miami-Dade’s Mayor Carlos Gimenez also took to Twitter quickly after saying that wouldn’t apply to the county, and the bars in Miami-Dade would remain closed.

Just yesterday Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis hinted that this announcement might be coming. Saying in a press conference that a decision about bars was coming “very soon” as he didn’t see a reason to keep bar closed as long as customers kept safe. Just hours later, Beshears took to Twitter announcing bars can reopen, which led to confusion for several hours since it wasn’t clear if that applied to South Florida counties, which have been operating under stricter rules.

Gimenez then took to Twitter to clear up the confusion saying, “Even though the State of Florida is planning to allow bars to open again, Miami Dade County’s bars will remain closed by emergency order until further notice. Our County continues to monitor this evolving situation as it works to tamp down COVID-19 cases.”

No timeline for when Miami-Dade’s bars will reopen but Gimenez has said multiple times that he doesn’t forsee that happening until there is an effective vaccine. Statewide Florida’s coronavirus positivity rate has declined in the past two months since its peak of more than 15,000 new daily cases on July 12 to 2,583 as of September 10.

• Miami-Dade Mayor Ends Indoor Dining Ban Starting August 31 [EMIA]
• Outdoor Dining is Allowed at Miami-Dade County Restaurants After Mayor Reverses Previous Order [EMIA]
• Miami-Dade Mayor Announces New Nightly Curfew, Makes Face Masks Mandatory While Dining [EMIA]
• After a Surge in Coronavirus Cases, Florida Shuts Down Bars Statewide [EMIA]
• Tracking Coronavirus’s Impact on the South Florida Food World [EMIA]
• All coverage of coronavirus [E]