Despite the coronavirus pandemic, tens of thousands of motorcyclists will descend on Daytona Beach, Florida for the city’s annual Bike Week event.
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The city has entered into an agreement with local pubs for 60% indoor capacity in exchange for permits needed for temporary outdoor sales and entertainment.
“I’m thankful I’m open to Bike Week, thankful that the city allowed the vendors and the full Bike Week thing,” Bobby Honeycutt, owner of Froggy’s Saloon, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal when the 10- days event began. Friday. The bar is limited to 102 customers inside, but is served from baths and pubs outside.
The local business chamber of Daytona, which organizes the event, estimates 300,000 to 400,000 motorcyclists. It usually draws 500,000.
“We know that this is likely to be less because of COVID concerns, and that many people are still struggling to cope with the loss of revenue from COVID,” said Janet Kersey, the chamber’s executive vice president president and chief operating officer, said.
Sam Acquaro is attending his 46th consecutive cycling week, even though he believes his son contracted the virus last year, which happened just as the pandemic began to spread across the country and the world. He stays outside.
“It really attacked him, and he should have caught it here,” he said. “So I haven’t been to a restaurant since.”
At John’s Rock N Ride souvenir shop, owner Johnny Sanchez sold far more $ 3 of beer than the design masks he offered for $ 7. Almost no one wears them.
“As for masks, they pay little attention to them,” Sanchez said with a shrug. “It’s just the way it is. What can you do?”
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While the event will continue as planned, city officials hope to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, similar to an incident that occurred during a Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota in August.
About 19 percent of the 1.4 million new cases of coronavirus in the U.S. between August 2 and September 2 were linked to the motorcycle event, according to researchers from San Diego State University’s Center for Health Economics & Policy Studies. That is more than 266,000 cases of coronavirus attributed to the ten-day event, which was attended by more than 460,000 people, despite fears that it could become a so-called super-distributor event.
“We conclude that the Sturgis motorcycle event generated public health costs of approximately $ 12.2 billion,” the researchers wrote in a paper. “It’s enough to have each of the estimated 462,182 attendees paid $ 26,553.64 not to attend.”
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Bicycle Week occurs when health officials expect an increase in travel to the state, while university students from across the country venture to the beach for the spring break.
Health experts have also urged Americans to be vigilant as some states begin to reverse coronavirus restrictions.
Several variants of the COVID-19 virus have been identified across the United States, including a new variant in New York – which, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci ‘effectively’ distributed through the state – in addition to the already documented South Africa and the United States. Kingdom variants.
At the same time, Texas and Mississippi announced Wednesday that they are removing mask mandates and lifting other restrictions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 90.3 million doses of COVID-19 were administered as of Sunday. The Florida portion administered more than 5.9 million of the doses.
Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is located, reported a total of 34,583 cases, including 576 non-residents, as of Sunday, according to the latest data from the Florida Department of Health. There are currently 1,793 people hospitalized in the country and 677 related deaths.
Fox News’ Peter Aiken, Evie Fordham and Associated Press contributed to this report