01/03/2021 16:33
Clarín.com
World
Updated 01/03/2021 4:33 PM
Coronavirus?
What coronavirus?
That's what the thousands of tourists and local residents of Miami Beach seem to think who enjoy the beach,
parties in nightclubs
and the atmosphere in streets in which many forget that the state of Florida registers
its worst days
since it began the coronavirus pandemic.
With or without covid-19, the usual fauna of the popular Ocean Drive promenade strolls their half-naked bodies and their usual self-confidence while the cheerful conversations that come from the
crowded restaurant terraces
, a wide variety of music and the effluvia of marijuana
mix.
that there is no chinstrap to mitigate.
One of those who contribute to this bustle is the group of friends of Brazilian Silvio Maraca, who traveled to enjoy the good weather and the Miami Beach party,
without fear of catching it or infecting it.
In his case, he says in conversation with the EFE agency - without a mask, of course - it is because the disease has already passed and he tested negative before getting on the plane to Miami.
He explains that his mouth and nose are not covered because the police only "threaten" to issue a fine, without going overboard.
And they only do it if you get very close to them.
Therefore, it is as easy as not approaching the agents and maintaining a philosophy that many seem to follow in Miami Beach: "The fun of the moment is worth more" than the possible punishment.
The restaurants and bars of Ocean Drive in Miami, full of visitors without masks.
Photo: EFE
Night parties
Tourists and residents
shamelessly boast of breaking the rules
, and many upload to their social networks samples of those moments of merriment that the health authorities fear will later become the drama of themselves, a relative or any stranger with whom they are bump when they are, perhaps, infected.
As hip-hop singer Tyga shows, who hosted a party at a Miami Beach nightclub on New Year's Eve and then uploaded a video of the traditional countdown to 2021 in
a crowded venue
on Instagram.
and where, without a doubt, they were not very rigorous when it came to maintaining the distance of two meters between the dozens of attendees.
And Tyga is still partying and this Saturday he added another at the Story nightclub in Miami Beach, one of the main cities in Miami-Dade County, the most affected by covid-19 in
Florida, which this week beat its record of cases positive with 17,192 in a single day
, well above the 15,300 that was registered in the worst of the first wave last summer.
Long lines to pass the controls at the Miami airport, days ago.
Tourists arrive without fear of the coronavirus.
Photo: AP
Without fear
But that little seems to scare walkers on Lincoln Road, Española Way and Ocean Drive, even now that the much more contagious British strain of Covid-19 was already detected in Florida in a young man who had not traveled anywhere in the incubation period.
And all this also despite the fact that a
curfew
is in force
from midnight to 6 in the morning
and you must wear a mask or similar in public places and maintain social distance, under pain of receiving a possible fine.
But Venezuelans living in Santiago de Chile Albert Chacón and Juan Manuel Torres, visiting Miami Beach, say they saw few police officers on streets where "half of the people" go without a mask.
"If compared with security measures in Chile, Miami Beach is far behind," says Chacón, while Torres believes that, although the "fear" of getting infected is always present, one must "learn" to live with the virus, because Otherwise, being self-conscious about enjoying the good times would mean "ceasing to live" in life.
And Miami-Beach is not an isolated case: it is a scenario that has been repeated in other tourist cities in Florida, whether coastal such as Fort Lauderdale or Tampa and Orlando, where this week several theme parks had to close their doors a few minutes after their opening because they had already reached the maximum amount of audience allowed.
Nothing seems to scare those who bet on the good weather and fun of Florida, apparently without giving excessive importance to the fact that, after California and Texas,
Florida is the third worst hit state in the United States,
the country with the highest number of cases globally.
By Álvaro Blanco, EFE agency
CB
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