Covid-19 and spring break didn’t make for a good mix. As one young man told a Miami reporter last March, “If I get corona, I get corona,” he said. “I’m not going to let it stop me from partying.”
Now it is March 2021, and Covid has killed over 500,000 Americans, and college-age students are still as naive as they were last year to the danger of not wearing a mask and social distancing during a global pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended against all travel, yet similar pictures and videos of spring breakers – no masks or social distancing in sight – are being seen again this year.
Rough Spring Break Friday night on #MiamiBeach. This just happened at 8th & Ocean Dr. It appears to show a bodyslam takedown as police try to control a crowd. Witnesses who sent me this video say cops were forced to deploy pepper spray which caused a stampede. @wsvn #Exclusive pic.twitter.com/s8gS3Silxe
— Sheldon Fox-7 News (@fox_sheldon) March 13, 2021
“We are very worried about transmissible variants,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said late last week, according to CNN. “A lot of them have come through our travel corridors, so we’re being extra cautious right now with travel.”
Walensky added that every time travel numbers are up, a surge in Covid-19 cases tends to follow — as was the case with major holidays like July 4, Labor Day, and the winter holiday season.
Spring break is a big concern for the CDC. With spring breaks kicking off, air travel is setting pandemic-era records. Over 1.3 million air-travelers were screened by the TSA on Friday, breaking a March 15, 2020 record.
“I think we are letting loose a bit too early. Because we’re talking about lifting mask mandates,” emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN Saturday. “I understand reopening businesses, I want our businesses and our schools, our churches and other institutions to reopen. We can do that if we keep in place mask mandates.”
People gather for spring break on the beach in Port Aransas on, Friday, March 12, 2021. #springbreak2021 #springbreak @callerdotcom pic.twitter.com/3lszYayaZc
— courtney sacco (@Caller_Courtney) March 13, 2021
“Florida hasn’t skipped a beat,” a college student from Michigan told the Sun-Sentinel of the atmosphere in Fort Lauderdale. The newspaper said the student was not concerned about the virus, saying “we’re not in the at-risk group,” according to The Guardian.
“We’re seeing too much spring break activity,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN Saturday morning. “We’ve got a problem with too many people coming here, we’ve got a problem with too many people coming here to let loose.”
“We are concerned,” the mayor said. “It’s very challenging.” However, it is not just spring-breakers that have public health officials concerned, though. Big crowds, not following guidance put out by the CDC may end up being caught in a surge of new coronavirus cases.
Many states have loosened their Covid-19 restrictions, and this may be creating a false sense of security with people believing the worst is over and it will be smooth sailing until July 4.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, Florida reported 5,244 new coronavirus cases on undefined and another 80 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 1,973,109 cases since the pandemic began. The state is reporting a positivity rate of 5.16 percent on Saturday, up from 4.88 percent on Friday.
When it comes to the COVID-19 variants, Florida leads the nation in case numbers. As of Saturday, there were 690 cases of the B.1.l.7 variant and 5 cases of P.1. variant. These cases are emerging as spring breakers use the state as their getaway from the cold and tight pandemic restrictions, reports Wink News.
