CDC links March church event with spread of COVID in rural Arkansas community

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," May 20, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: In the meantime here, much attention being paid to what’s happening in the rest of the Sunshine State, particularly in Miami, as it continues its own reopening phase.

Right now, Francis Suarez, the mayor of beautiful Miami, I might point out a COVID-19 survivor as well.

Mayor, first off, how you feeling these days?

FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MAYOR OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: I feel great, Neil.

I was very fortunate. I was 18 days in quarantine, and thankfully had a mild form of COVID-19, and survived, did very well. Thanks.

CAVUTO: That’s good to hear. And I’m sure you’re trying to prevent anything like that from acting up in Miami.

You have been very cautious in your reopening plans and staggering them carefully. Where are we today? In the phase one part of this, where are we?

SUAREZ: Today, we actually commend phase one.

We’re opening our parks. We’re opening our retail businesses. We’re opening personal grooming businesses. And we’re opening office spaces to a capacity of 50 percent.

It’s something that we have lagged slightly behind our county. And our governor has given us the opportunity to tailor our opening to our municipality. We are the city that has the most cases in the state of Florida. And so, because of that, we’re coordinating with other cities to make sure that our rules are the same, that our businesses are prepared, and that they’re ready.

And so far, today, from all the reports that we have gotten, it’s gone swimmingly.

CAVUTO: Obviously, heading into Memorial weekend, I mean, people will want to swim. Are they going to be able to swim? Or is this still, as it is and a lot of beaches on both coasts, where you can jog, walk on the beach, but you don’t just sort of meander and sit around on the beach?

SUAREZ: Right.

So, in Miami Beach, which is our neighboring city, they have decided to keep the beaches close through Memorial Day weekend. I think the reason why they’re doing it -- and it makes a lot of sense -- is because it’s very difficult to police social distancing on our beaches right now.

And, of course, they’re concerned about a rush of people coming on vacation of some sort. And so they just -- sort of as a precautionary measure, they’re making sure that the beaches are closed throughout that period. It’s something that we have seen in other parts of the country governments struggle with the amount of people that have flooded the beaches in certain times.

So, it makes some sense. And it’s something that I think will prevent us from having a situation like has happened in other parts of the country.

CAVUTO: So, it’s going to be hot there this weekend. It’s always hot.

But, I mean, it’s a nice heat, I get that. But people are going to want to disobey that, and they’re going to want to challenge that, as they have in California, for example, where it got so bad, the governor had to slap down and close some of the beaches again.

Now, I’m just wondering -- this goes beyond your area. I get that, Mayor. But what kind of punishments are meted out for those who don’t listen?

SUAREZ: Well, part of what we’re doing is, we’re opening up some of the relief valves by opening up parks in the city.

And we’re doing that in conjunction with other major cities in Miami-Dade County. We did see, as you mentioned, the county had opened a few weeks ago parks and marinas, and particularly in parks -- Miami Beach had opened up parks of Miami, Hialeah. Miami Gardens had not.

And we saw a rush of people go to parks, in South Beach in particular, and that park had to be closed. So one of the things that we did in our reopening today for phase one was, we lined up with Miami Beach, Hialeah, Miami Gardens to make sure that we wouldn’t create any sort of rushes between the city.

So that’s something that we’re hopeful, and, again, hoping that opening up the parks will give people much more free space to be able to go out and enjoy the outdoors, which is something that we -- they have been able to do throughout this entire pandemic.

It’s been an exception to our stay-at-home orders to be able to go out, walk your dog, exercise, et cetera.

CAVUTO: All right, Mayor, thank you very, very much.

Continued good health to you and all your constituents in that beautiful neck of the woods, Miami, Florida.

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