Miami-Dade County closes restaurants, gyms, and more for a second time​ amid COVID-19 pandemic

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has ordered Miami-Dade County restaurant dining rooms, gyms, and more to close under a planned emergency order going into effect this week.

What are the details?

According to a Monday report from the Miami Herald, restaurant dining rooms, gyms, casinos, movie theaters, and strip clubs are ordered closed effective Wednesday in order to tamp down the spread of COVID-19, which has hit astronomical numbers across the Sunshine State.

Short-term vacation rentals will also be banned effective Wednesday.

In a statement, Gimenez said, "We want to ensure that our hospitals continue to have the staffing necessary to save lives."

He added, "At this time, I plan to keep open various outdoor activities, including condominium and hotel pools with strict social distancing and masks rules, as well as summer camps and child daycare centers with strict capacity limits, requiring masks, and social distancing of at least six feet."

Gimenez also said that beaches would be permitted to reopen on Tuesday following a temporary closure over the long holiday weekend.

The Republican mayor also warned that future closures are not out of the question.

“Beaches will be open on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, but, if we see crowding and people not following the public health rules, I will be forced to close the beaches again," he added.

What else?

Earlier today, Gimenez said that Black Lives Matter demonstrations likely accounted for a portion of the recent spike in COVID-19 infections.

Speaking with CBS' "Face the Nation," Gimenez said, "Obviously the protests had a lot to do with it."

"We had thousands of young people together outside, a lot of them not wearing masks, and we know that when you do that and you are talking, and you are chanting, et cetera, that really spreads the virus," he explained. "So absolutely the protests had something to do with it."

Gimenez explained that the protests weren't the only contributing factor, however, and insisted that there were a good many residents who "let their guard down" too soon.

"[I]t's all of the above," he said. "I'm not saying it's just [protesting], but it was a contributing factor."

At the time of this writing, researchers at Johns Hopkins estimate that there have been at least 206,447 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida, with at least 3,778 deaths due to the virus.