Florida Gov.: Young people fueling COVID outbreak

Officials are announcing more beaches will be closing again in the US state of Florida to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus as they try to tamp down on large gatherings amid a spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference on Sunday in Pensacola that interactions among young people are driving the surge in confirmed cases.

Meanwhile authorities in Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach County said they would be closing beaches during the busy Fourth of July weekend following the decision of neighbouring Miami-Dade County to close theirs between July 3 and July 7.

The Florida Department of Health reported on Sunday more than 8,500 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths.

In total, the state now has more than 141,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 3,400 deaths.

New hospitalisations are also ticking upward, although not as dramatically as the new cases.

New admissions this week have been between 160 and 170 per day, according to figures compiled by covidtracking.com.

State officials on Friday announced a ban on alcohol consumption at bars, and DeSantis explained Sunday there was “widespread noncompliance" in those businesses, saying they “tossed aside” safety guidelines.

Several restaurants were shut down over the weekend in Broward County for not following rules restricting capacity and mandating the use of masks.

DeSantis said that between late May and early June, racial justice protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis diverted attention from the pandemic, and people began to feel more comfortable going out.

South Florida restaurants and businesses restarted operations with some restrictions in the middle of May after wide closures, but some municipalities delayed the reopening to later that month. Beaches in Miami-Dade County, the hardest-hit, only reopened on June 10.