Miami’s Suarez Says Stay-Home Measure Should Be ‘Last Resort’

(Bloomberg) -- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said stay-home measures should be a “last resort” as Covid-19 cases surge in his city and the rest of Florida.

“It’s something that we can’t take off the table, but it’s something that we should only use in a last resort,” Suarez told Bloomberg QuickTake in an interview Wednesday.

Suarez said he hoped a new mask order in his city and neighboring areas in Miami-Dade County would help stem the spread.

Suarez said new cases and increasing positivity rates among test batches were “alarming,” but he said policy decisions would ultimately come down to the impact on the hospital system, which he said wasn’t currently overburdened.

He also said it was too early to say whether a Miami presidential debate in October would have an audience, but he said it wouldn’t if the situation doesn’t improve.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.