The incident on Friday night was among a large crowd who were ‘disorderly and surrounding officers’, another tweet said. Miami Beach police tweeted that they were using peppercorns to disperse the group.
Miami Beach City spokeswoman Veronica Payssé told CNN on Sunday that the weekend’s approximately 100 arrests include the seizure of weapons and drugs.
Spring interrupted during a pandemic
Payssé said the issues are typical of the crowds of every year during the spring break, but that the Covid-19 protocols have the task of policing the crowd 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 the hopes that people will wear them, Payssé said.
Florida is a popular spring vacation destination, and some of the beaches are full.
“We’re seeing too much spring break,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN on Saturday morning. “We have a problem with too many people coming here, we have a problem with too many people coming here to get loose.”
“We’re worried,” the mayor said. “It’s very challenging.”
‘A little crazy’
Jamin Stuhr, visiting from Iowa, said he understands how people could forget Covid-19, but he and his friends tried to remember.
“It’s just important to keep everyone safe, especially the more likely to get it and get really sick,” 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 distance on the beach and avoid crowds.
” For a while during the beginning of the spring break it got a little crazy, the pubs got a little crazy, very busy, people without masks, but we tend to stay away from it, ” she said. said.
The Florida Department of Health on Saturday reported 1,973,109 Covid-19 cases, an increase of 5,167 cases since Friday.
Cases in Florida have been rising for the past five days after a decline was seen in previous days, according to data from the FLDH dashboard.
The state Department of Health website shows that a majority of new cases come from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with more than 677 new cases in each state.
CNN’s Hollie Silverman and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.