Spring break 2021: 100 arrested as crowds hit Miami Beach despite pandemic

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Friday night’s incident involved a large crowd who were “disorderly and surrounding officers,” another tweet said. Miami Beach Police tweeted that they used pepperballs to disperse the group.

The hundred arrests over the weekend, some for seizures of weapons and drugs, Miami Beach city spokeswoman Veronica Payssé told CNN on Sunday.

Spring break during a pandemic

Payssé said the problems were typical of every year’s spring break crowds, but the Covid-19 protocols made the task of controlling the crowds twice as difficult.

The state of Florida does not allow local courts to fine people for violating mask orders, and the city can only offer free masks in the hope that people wear them, Payssé said.

Florida is a popular spring break destination and some of its beaches are crowded.

“We see too much activity during spring break,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN Saturday morning. “We have a problem with too many people coming here, we have a problem with too many people coming here to let go.”

“We are worried,” said the mayor. “It’s very difficult.”

‘A little crazy’

Further north, in Clearwater Beach, Pinellas County, some bathers were trying to cope with the pandemic, CNN affiliate WFTS reported.

Jamin Stuhr – visiting from Iowa – said he understood how people could forget about Covid-19, but he and his friends were trying to remember.

“It’s just really important to keep everyone safe, especially the ones who are more prone to catching it and getting really sick from it,” he told WFTS. The group said they wore masks on the street and stayed with their own group.

Local resident Tanya Landry told WFTS she set up her chair to ensure social distancing on the beach and to avoid crowds.

“A little bit at the start of spring break, here it got a little crazy, the bars got a little crazy, very busy, people without masks, so but we tend to stay away from that” , she said.

The Florida Department of Health reported 1,973,109 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, an increase of 5,167 cases since Friday.

Florida cases have been on the rise for five days after experiencing a drop in the previous days, according to data from the FLDH Dashboard.

The state’s health department website shows that the majority of 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.

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