Thousands of students flocked to Miami Beach, Florida, this month for spring from their American colleges and universities, prompting the city to extend its curfew and emergency services to 8 p.m. Images on social media show people disputing federal clues to avoid large crowds and to wear masks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. One photo that drew a swarm of people to the beach is from the 2019 spring break, a year before the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping the world, claiming more than 2.8 million lives.
Examples of the photo being shared can be seen here , here, here , here ,
Those who post the photo of people gathered and comment on it seem to believe it’s coming from 2021, with one poster saying, “I’m glad I live 1,500 miles from Miami Beach” and another referring to the expansion of the city’s evening clock.
The original photo was published by the South Florida Sun Sentinel on March 22, 2019 and attributed to Miami Beach Police with the caption “Spring Break crowds gathered at Miami Eighth Street beach last weekend.” The large number of people who gathered at the famous party venue prompted Miami Beach to pursue a more aggressive strategy of managing the crowd during the spring break long before the coronavirus (here) was destroyed by the United States.
A popular poster, podcast Fernand R. Amandi (here), posted an explanation when people on social media pointed out the date variety. He also posted a reply to his original tweet, saying that ‘it has come to my attention that the photo in the original tweet is not coming from this week, but that does not change the fact that Miami Beach is flooded with thousands of maskless springs is not. Breakers that do not follow the CDC pandemic guidelines, as these recent photos confirm. ”
The video posted by the Miami Herald on March 22, 2021 shows a dense, maskless crowd in another part of Eighth Street until they are dispersed by police spraying pepper spray (here). The Miami Herald reports that the area “has been packed with parties for the past few weeks.” In a Reuters slideshow, people are standing together, with only some wearing masks during Spring Break (here).
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that people wear masks and stay six feet apart to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The interim manager of Miami Beach, Raul Aguila, declared a state of emergency on March 20, 2021 by setting a curfew, closing some roads and temporarily closing some restaurant seats on the sidewalk due to the “significant concerns of the police department with regard to larger crowds during the spring break. ”In the statement, the city also called on some businesses to close voluntarily (here here).
VERDICT
Partly false. The photo shows Miami Beach during Spring Break, but is from 2019. Miami Beach struggled with large crowds in 2021.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.