Miami-Dade Mayor Instates County Mask Mandate, FL Dependent on Feds for Monoclonals

December 23, 2021 Updated 7:10 P.M.

MIAMI (FCV) – On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) announced a mask mandate inside county-owned buildings and pleaded that residents get fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Cava is also pushing to get more monoclonal antibody treatment supplies for COVID patients, saying they have faced a depletion of supply.

Mayor Cava is asking the federal government for a different brand of monoclonals due to the belief that Regeneron’s monoclonal treatment is not effective against Omicron.

“We are using this treatment method a lot here in South Florida, oftentimes because people have viewed it as an alternative to vaccination,” she remarked.

“It is not an alternative to vaccination,” she continued.

Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for the Florida Department of Health, told FCV that Florida “is reallocating monoclonals from areas of the state with less demand to expand services.”

“With omicron being a more transmissible variant, Florida requested additional allocations from the federal government. Due to the federal government contracting directly with supplying providers to buy the treatment, the state can no longer obtain treatments as we have done previously,” he continued.

“We are dependent on the federal government for supply.”

Redfern noted that the symptoms of Omicron are still “relatively mild.”

Conservatives point out that mask mandates not only are a needless intrusion on personal decision-making, but they also run contrary to new Omicron COVID-19 data, which shows an 80% lower risk of hospitalization in South Africa.

The HHS Locator can be used to find monoclonal antibody treatments.