Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, made the announcement about shuttering bars on Twitter Friday.
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Florida is banning drinking at bars again as the state experiences a big surge in coronavirus cases.
Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, made the announcement about shuttering bars on Twitter Friday.
“Effective immediately, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation is suspending on premises consumption of alcohol at bars statewide,” Beshears tweeted.
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Florida’s bars were shutdown for two months to try and contain the spread of the coronavirus. Gov. Ron DeSantis allowed them to reopen in early June, but since then Florida has experienced a big wave of new coronavirus cases.
Florida again shattered the daily record for new cases Friday, with the state Department of Health reporting more than 8,000.
Effective immediately, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation is suspending on premises consumption of alcohol at bars statewide.
— Florida DBPR (@FloridaDBPR) June 26, 2020Bars were included in Phase 2 of the governor’s reopening plan, which also allowed movie theaters, bowling alleys, tattoo parlors and other businesses to reopen.
The decision to ban drinking at bars is a reversal from what DeSantis said last week about rolling back reopening efforts.
“We’re not rolling back,” DeSantis said at a news conference.
DeSantis said earlier this week that DBPR would crack down on bars and other establishments that were not following reopening guidelines. The agency revoked the liquor license of a bar near the University of Central Florida where multiple employees and patrons contracted the virus.
But the governor’s office appears to have concluded that stronger enforcement was not enough amid the flood of new coronavirus cases.
Florida continues to set daily records for new cases, with the state topping 4,000 cases in a single day for the first time, then 5,000 and now 8,000, all in the span of just the last week.
Florida has become one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the nation.
DeSantis has been playing down the surge in cases by noting that many of those infected are younger and less likely to be seriously ill. He also has pointed to the availability of hospital beds, but bed availability has started declining in parts of the state.
The worsening outbreak has alarmed many health officials and policymakers. Cites and counties across the state have enacted, or are considering, new mask regulations that require facial coverings in certain public settings.
DeSantis has opposed a statewide mask rule.
Closing bars to everything but to-go orders is the most significant example of easing back on reopening, but it is not the only one.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital announced Thursday that it will ban visitors again starting today at 6 p.m..
Sarasota Memorial was treating 36 COVID-19 patients on Thursday, more than triple the number of patients hospitalized with the disease at the beginning of the month.
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June 26, 2020 at 10:55PM
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Florida closes bars again as COVID-19 cases spike - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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