100 arrested as spring break crowds hit Miami Beach despite the pandemic
Friday night’s incident involved a large crowd who were “disorderly and surrounding officers,” another tweet said. Miami Beach police tweeted that they used pepper balls to disperse the group.
The weekend’s approximately 100 arrests included some for the seizure of weapons and drugs, city of Miami Beach spokeswoman Veronica Payssé told CNN on Sunday.
Spring break during a pandemic
Payssé said the issues are typical for each year’s spring break crowds, but that Covid-19 protocols made the task of policing the crowds twice as hard.
The state of Florida does not allow local jurisdictions to fine people for violating mask orders, and the city can only offer free masks in hopes that people wear them, she said.
Florida is a popular spring break destination, and some of its beaches have been packed.
“We’re seeing too much spring break activity,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN Saturday morning. “We’ve got a problem with too many people coming here, we’ve got a problem with too many people coming here to let loose.”
“We are concerned,” the mayor said. “It’s very challenging.”
The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 1,973,109 Covid-19 cases Saturday, an increase of 5,167 cases since Friday.
Cases in Florida have been on an uptick for the last five days after seeing a decline in the previous days, data from the FLDH dashboard shows.
The state’s health department website shows that a majority of the new cases were from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with more than 677 new cases reported in each county.
CNN’s Hollie Silverman and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.
