Students partying in Florida raise concern that virus will spread

Miami Beach will extend a state of emergency in its entertainment district that could run through the end of the college spring break vacation period as police seek to control unruly crowds, which has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests and the seizure of about 80 guns.

The extension to be announced Tuesday in the Florida city will authorize a curfew Thursday night through early Monday that can be extended every week through April 13, the city said in a release Sunday.

"How many more things are we going to allow to occur before we step in?" Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements told an emergency meeting of the Miami Beach City Commission on Sunday to vote to enact several measures, including extending curfew until at least April 12, to curb the crowds. "I think this was the right decision," he said.

"When hundreds of people are running through the streets panicked, you realize that's not something that a police force can control," he said during the commission meeting Sunday.

Clements said that on March 15, an unusually large crowd blocked Ocean Drive, the main beachfront strip, "and basically had an impromptu street party". Fights were breaking out, setting off dangerous stampedes to safety, he said.

He said one restaurant was "turned upside down" in a melee, its "chairs were used as weapons", and broken glass covered the floor. Gunshots were fired, and a young woman was hospitalized with a cut leg, police said.

The crowd was defiant but mostly nonviolent on Saturday night, refusing to submit to a curfew that had been enacted only four hours earlier, when officers in bulletproof vests released pepper spray balls to break up a party.

On Saturday, interim city manager Raul Aguila imposed the nighttime curfew on the most touristy streets of South Beach, the center of the party, and ordered the closure of the three bridges that connect the island with Miami from 10 pm to 6 am. A crowd showed up again Sunday night, defying the curfew once more.

Aguila said that many people from other states were coming in "to engage in lawlessness and an 'anything-goes' party attitude". He said most weren't patronizing the businesses that need tourism dollars and instead were merely congregating by the thousands in the street.

The huge crowds of college students also have sparked fears that there could be a new coronavirus outbreak, as there has been little social distancing. Hundreds of rowdy revelers, many not wearing masks, as is required by a Miami Beach ordinance, sat indoors in bars and restaurants and met in large groups on Ocean Drive.

"The governor has said, you know, 'Everything's open, come on down.' But the problem is that we're still in the midst of a pandemic. It's not in our rearview mirror yet by any means, and it's certainly not in my county and my city,'' Mayor Dan Gelber said.

"So that's a challenge, and with this many people coming, we have, it's sort of a triple threat of too many crowds, too many people acting out, and a pandemic. And those three together just create a very challenging moment."

Florida has recorded more than 2 million coronavirus infections and more than 33,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The state has reported the highest number of cases of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant that started in the UK. At least 12 percent of Floridians have been fully vaccinated, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The amended state of emergency will limit traffic on three causeways leading to South Beach to keep all but residents, hotel guests and employees from driving onto the island.

It also imposes a curfew in Miami Beach's entertainment district from 8 pm to 6 am and closes sidewalk dining from 7 pm through 6 am. All restaurants, bars and businesses are required to be closed by 8 pm. Only residents who live in the area will be allowed to walk down streets in the entertainment district.

John Walter, a resident of South Beach, said on Sunday night that when the curfew began, police pushed crowds off Ocean Drive, and many ended up in his neighborhood.

"People were walking up and down the parked cars, he told the CBS affiliate in Miami. "My neighbor's kids were screaming. When the police showed up, people started running toward our building. My neighbor and I sat on the floor and put our feet on the staircase to try and block them from coming in."