Friday night’s incident involved a large crowd that were “disorderly and surrounding agents,” according to another tweet. Miami Beach police tweeted that they used pepper balls to disperse the group.
The weekend’s approximately 100 arrests, including some for the seizure of weapons and drugs, Miami Beach city spokeswoman Veronica Payssé told CNN on Sunday.
Spring break during a pandemic
Payssé said the problems are typical of every year’s spring break bustle, but the Covid-19 protocols made the task of monitoring the crowd twice as difficult.
The state of Florida does not allow local jurisdictions to fine people for violating mask orders, and the city can only offer free masks in the hope that people will wear them, she said.
Florida is a popular spring break destination, and some beaches are packed.
“We’re seeing too many spring break activities,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber told CNN Saturday morning. “We have a problem with too many people coming here, we have a problem with too many people coming here to let go.”
“We’re worried,” said the mayor. “It’s very challenging.”
The Florida Department of Health reported a total of 1,973,109 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, an increase of 5,167 cases since Friday.
Florida cases have been on the rise in the past five days after seeing a decline in recent days, according to data from the FLDH dashboard.
The state health department’s website shows that a majority of new cases were from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with more than 677 new cases reported in each county.
Hollie Silverman and Amanda Watts of CNN contributed to this report.