All of Florida except for Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward Counties are currently in the early stages of reopening. For the rest of the State, Phase 1 of the coronavirus reopening includes:

• Restaurants can offer outdoor seating with 6-foot spacing between tables and indoor seating is limited to 25-percent capacity.

• Retail stores can operate at 25-percent of indoor capacity.

• Elective surgeries can resume.

• No changes to closures for bars, nightclubs, gyms, theaters, and personal services like salons and hairdressers.

• Schools remain distance-learning only.

• Visits to senior living facilities are still prohibited.

• Pharmacists in Florida will now be allowed to administer COVID-19 tests.

• Local governments will be allowed to have more restrictive policies than the state.

The reason given for Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Broward Counties being slower to open is over half of Florida’s COVID cases are in the tri-county area. But many Palm Beach residents are arguing that the Palm Beaches shouldn’t be stuck following rules set by Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Why? Because when you dig into the numbers, many areas in the Palm Beaches are not nearly as bad off as Miami-Dade and Broward. Northern Palm Beach County, in particular is doing better.

County commissioners in Palm Beach County have drafted a letter to Gov. DeSantis asking to be separated from the other two, more highly infected communities and a meeting is being held on the topic this Friday.

There will be more news on this issue after Friday’s meeting.