Leaders shut off the Florida Keys to visitors for weeks. Now, COVID-19 cases are rising
Three weeks ago, the Florida Keys had an empty feeling.
Shops were shut. Restaurants had a few locals. And two checkpoints blocked tourists from entering the island chain.
The COVID-19 rate also was low. With visitors shut out, Keys leaders hoped the virus would be, too.
Fast-forward to now, and many tourists are back. They’re spreading out on the beaches, filling the restaurants — at least to the new limited capacity — and strolling Duval Street.
The coronavirus numbers are up, too. In the past two weeks, 81 cases have been added to the Keys total. The prior two-week period saw 13 additional cases.
Could the reopening of the island chain be affecting the coronavirus infection rate?
Two weeks ago, the Keys started seeing a spike in coronavirus cases, after months of a new case here and there. The region wasn’t spared deaths, with four since the pandemic started, but the impact was nothing like the rest of South Florida.
On Friday, the Keys had a record daily high of 15 reported cases to make a total of 202 known cases.
The last record had been 14 in one day, on Thursday. That new total included 94 added cases since the Keys reopened to tourists on June 1.
Before that, it was 108 cases — and that included a cluster of cases from a nursing home in the Upper Keys, where more than 20 residents and staff have tested positive.
TOURISM FACTOR
Are the visitors causing the uptick in COVID-19 cases?
“Clearly, these people coming down from the mainland, they’re not playing nice,” said County Mayor Heather Carruthers. “This has come pretty fast and furious. It’s overwhelming.”
During the checkpoint days, when cars were stopped coming into the Keys, the other side of U.S. 1 allowed Keys residents to freely drive up to the mainland. Still, the COVID-19 cases did not spike until the southbound lanes reopened to tourists.
Keys leaders expected case totals to rise, but not like this.
“We currently have six hospitalizations,” Carruthers said Thursday, as she was preparing for phone meetings with other Keys leaders to address the rise of COVID-19 reports. “That’s starting to make me really uncomfortable.”
In the Keys, where tourism pays most of the bills, the reopening of the island chain versus the risk of COVID-19 spread has been a balancing act, she said. The county is doing more outreach to urge people to take precautions.
“Social distance, wash your hands and wear your damn mask,” Carruthers said. “It’s required. Clearly, a lot of people have not been. And stay home if you’re sick. We’ve got to do something. If everybody could stay home and still pay their bills we wouldn’t be so pressured to open up.”
Visitors could be contributing to the rise of the novel coronavirus along the island chain, said Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Florida International University.
“There is so much COVID in Miami-Dade County and as they open up to probably a lot of people from the rest of South Florida there is probably more exposure going on in the Keys that wasn’t present when they were completely closed down,” Trepka said.
Trepka says it takes about two weeks for COVID-19 test results to begin reflecting the effects of looser social distancing regulations such as the reopening of businesses to residents, and in the Keys’ case, the reopening of the island chain to visitors.
Now is the time when those potential cases would start to appear in the county’s test results, she said.
MORE COVID CASES
Florida’s Department of Health has reported more than 50 additional cases in Monroe County over the past two weeks, with the positivity test rate ranging from 0 percent to 12.3 percent.
“The question, of course, is were those people exposed in the Keys or were they exposed in Miami-Dade County or elsewhere in South Florida? We don’t know that from the data,” Trepka said.
That question could potentially be answered through Monroe County Department of Health’s contact tracing investigations.
The tracers are virus detectives, tracking down newly infected people and those with whom they may have had close contact with in an effort to isolate them and stop the disease from spreading.
The Keys will also likely continue to report additional cases. Trepka says there are ways to help keep the rates down:
- Follow social distancing guidelines, such as staying at least six feet away from others.
- Wear your mask when out in public (this is now mandatory in Monroe County)
- Wash your hands frequently.
- Stay home if you are feeling sick. You should also stay home if you know or suspect you were exposed to someone with COVID-19 until you test negative.
Outside of Key West, the most popular tourist destination in the 120-mile island chain, the second highest concentration of cases were in Tavernier, a mostly residential area in the Upper Keys.
PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT
Bob Eadie, administrator of the Department of Health in Monroe County, said the rise in cases cannot all be blamed on visitors to the Keys.
“If everyone were wearing their masks and keeping social distances and washing their hands they wouldn’t have gotten it either,” Eadie said.
The quantity of cases isn’t surprising, Eadie said.
“We were living in a bubble,” Eadie said. “We were isolated ourselves from a great deal of infection happening in Dade and Broward and Palm Beach county. With our checkpoints, we kept out a lot of people that could have had the disease. It’s finally here.”
People need to take the disease more seriously, Eadie said. Outside or inside, he said, whenever you’re within six feet of someone, put on the mask.
“It’s individual responsibility now and individual choices,” Eadie said “If 80 percent of the population would wear a mask and socially distance you would see a rapid drop in cases in a couple of weeks.”
State health department workers in Monroe are getting help to keep up with the amount of contact tracing. The state has hired an agency to send more help.
“We’re being stretched pretty thin in Monroe County,” Eadie said “The contact tracing is very important for any disease control. You’re trying to separate the disease from new cases and the way to do that is find out who is infectious and isolate them from the rest of the public.”
IN KEY WEST
Some don’t blame the tourists at all but believe COVID-19 is finally taking root in the Keys.
“It doesn’t matter where it’s coming from or who it’s coming from,” said bar owner Mark Rossi, a former Key West city commissioner who is running for mayor in August. “I worry about it all. You can’t stop the spread. It has to take its natural course.”
Rossi said the government’s attempt to legally require people to wear face masks isn’t working.
“I don’t think there’s a way to enforce it,” Rossi said. “My employees are walking around saying if you’re not seated in a chair you’ve got to wear a mask. That’s all we can do.”
Key West Mayor Teri Johnston, though, says code compliance officers and police are making the rounds to enforce the mask law in Key West. The city’s rules are tougher than the county’s mandatory mask ordinance and carry a criminal penalty of up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.
“We’ve been trying to legislate common sense,” Johnston said, in a Facebook video. “That clearly is not working in this situation.”
In Key West, the most populous city in the Keys, three bars over the past week announced they would temporarily close after one worker at each watering hole had reported testing positive for COVID-19. Willie T.s and Irish Kevin’s, both on Duval Street, made Facebook announcements, as did Shanna Key, a New Town Irish pub.
The Roost, on Fleming Street, however, didn’t have any coronavirus reports among employees. They simply decided to shutter until further notice.
“We are all safe and healthy and want to keep it that way,” Roost management posted on Facebook. “Though we have not been impacted personally, the continued health and safety of our staff and patrons is our No. 1 priority.”
Carruthers noted that these bar owners are being open about it. She wondered how many others haven’t.
Bars in the Keys have only been allowed to reopen since June 5 after the March 17 statewide shutdown. On Friday, a state agency announced the suspension of alcohol consumption at bars across Florida.
It’s not only tourist spots that have felt the threat of COVID-19. On Thursday, the Monroe County Tax Collector shut down two offices in Key West after learning an employee at each location had tested positive for coronavirus.
“As soon I knew, the door were shut,” said Tax Collector Danise “Dee Dee” Henriquez, who sent all 33 employees to be tested. “I am following protocol and did exactly what I was supposed to do. We’re not opening until we get back all the negative tests.”
The tentative reopen date is Wednesday, she said.
“Hopefully everyone else will come back negative,” she said, not long after she was swabbed for the coronavirus.
This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Leaders shut off the Florida Keys to visitors for weeks. Now, COVID-19 cases are rising."
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