Florida Spring break: health experts warn of trouble as people party while even more infectious variants multiply

Miami experiencing new kind of spring break mayhem in 'most open' state after lockdown Health experts warn of trouble as people party while even more infectious variants multiply in Florida. NBC News

Cheap flights, cheap hotels and the chance to party in a place with lots of sunshine and virtually no Covid-19 restrictions have created a “perfect storm” amid the pandemic in South Florida, Miami's mayor warned Monday.

And local officials are bracing for more spring break mayhem like the kind that occurred over the weekend in Miami Beach when the crowds grew too big and too wild and police cracked down hard, he said.

“There's no doubt that Miami, and the Miami area, and the state are probably one of the most open states in the entire country,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, said on MSNBC.

“That's created sort of a perfect storm where you have people that can come to Miami. It's very inexpensive. I've been told some of the flights are $50 and even the hotels are very inexpensive. So, it's been a very difficult mix of inexpensive flights, inexpensive hotels and being known as probably the most open place in the country.”

Suarez spoke out a day after city leaders on the other side of Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach voted to extend an 8 p.m. curfew in the South Beach entertainment district to the end of this month and possibly into the middle of April.

“We're obviously preparing ourselves for the possibility that there may be spillover from some of these actions that are taken in Miami Beach with the early curfews and the early shutting down of the causeways of people entering Miami Beach, so we're prepared for that,” he said.

Suarez's concerns about a deluge of spring break visitors from afar who are unwilling to wear masks or practice social distancing — and are not required by local authorities to do so — have been echoed for weeks by public health experts. ...