The issue is not who is worthy, friends to KCB or currently healthy. The issue is what is best for everyone now, before this virus spreads at an alarming rate as we have seen in other countries. We must look at where people can best be taken care of in the long run. To think this will go away in a couple of weeks is a luxury, we as a government cannot afford. The spring break kids have proven our vulnerability to reducing the spread.
The Keys only has very few available isolation beds in our 2 and a fraction urgent care hospitals. The governor has already started rationing medical care. If I were a visitor in the Keys with my primary doctor at home elsewhere, I would be leaving yesterday. Further Tramastar will not fly out virus patents. A case in point, a winter resident had a stroke yesterday and is in a Miami hospital were his wife drove for 2 hours to see him, only to be not allowed in because of COVID-19 protocols and no local family doctor to call for help. I do not want this for anyone. We can only take care of our residents in a pandemic. This is like following Irma when everyone wanted to come in without a working hospital. They said they were healthy and could take care of themselves. We could not afford to gamble with their lives, so delayed allowing returning residents until we had a hospital.
Therefore, we are asking people that are not residents to return to their homes where medical care is sized to handle them and their family doctor resides that can best take care of them. Eviction is not the correct term for vacationers. No one is being evicted from their “residence.” This is not any different than a hurricane evacuation of tourist in my book.
Also, we have not begun wide testing and the spring break kids have just left today. Do not be complacent with only one active case in Monroe County. We have no idea of the number of infected people here. Screening is on the way for residents.
If there is a true hardship on returning home, we will handle on a case by case basis for “sheltering in place.”
The Monroe County emergency order was very flawed, and realtors were already writing contracts for over 28 days to circumvent the order, flooding our 34% vacation rental homes with people from who knows where.
So, to finish, this is not a very simple problem and there are many other considerations your County and City have been factoring into this emergency order.
-John