Officials order curfews for Miami Lakes, Hialeah Gardens, Hialeah

Three municipalities in northwest Miami-Dade County have united to order curfews for 10 days to try and halt the spread of the coronavirus.
Miami Lakes Town Manager Edward Pidermann announced the order for the town on Monday afternoon. It will be in effect there and in the cities of Hialeah Gardens and Hialeah from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., through April 23.
“As the number of positive cases in Northwest Dade continue to increase, health care experts are warning that this might be the worst week we face,” Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban Bovo, Jr. said Monday in a press release.
Bovo represents District 13 which includes the three municipalities.
Last week he had warned that the numbers of cases of COVID-19 in the northwest section of the county were too high.
“Although I cannot implement a mandatory policy for the unincorporated areas of my district, I strongly recommend and encourage the residents of Palm Springs North and its surrounding neighborhoods to follow the same measures,” Bovo said.
Miami-Dade County leads the state with 7,459 cases of COVID-19 as of April 13, when there were 109 deaths in the county.
Dade has more than double the number of cases of the next highest county, Broward.
Hialeah had 918 cases of the virus and Miami Lakes had 35.
The mayor's office in Hialeah Gardens said there were approximately four cases, but that because the city shares two zip codes with Miami Lakes and Hialeah, it was difficult to know the exact number of patients in their city.
If city officials supply that number this story will be updated.
Pidermann on Monday said Bovo asked the three municipalities to institute the curfew. As for enforcement, Pidermann said he was out around 11 p.m. one recent evening.
“Really there’s nobody out,” Pidermann said. “There’s not a single car out on the street.”
Police have been enforcing a prior order that patrons and business employees wear face coverings and will enforce the curfew too, he said.
Those who break curfew could face arrest, “but that’s not our intent. Our intent is to educate people,” Pidermann.
He gave residents credit for complying with social distancing and following other sanitary practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said that was why cases were leveling off in town.
Pidermann said as of Monday, no one in town had died from the virus.
The Miami Lakes order bans people from the sidewalks and streets – whether traveling by foot, bicycle or vehicle -- during the curfew, with some exceptions:
 Police, fire rescue or utility employees who are on duty;
 Late shift employees who are traveling between work and home;
 Food deliveries;
 Walking a pet up to 250 feet from home.