Florida city holds Mardi Gras parade despite rise in cases
A city on Florida’s panhandle put on its Mardi Gras parade as planned, despite its high positivity rate.
Prior to the parade on Saturday, Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay advised residents to take their temperature before attending the event and for everyone who attends the party after the parade and participates in the kid’s zone to wear a mask.
"I would love to focus only on the fun and pageantry of it all because I love Mardi Gras, but we must accept life on life's terms," Lindsay wrote. "Presently we are in the midst of a widespread outbreak of a virus that is not just the flu."
The city currently has a positivity rate of 18%, "well above" the state average of 6.62%, Lindsay wrote. Households affected in Milton reduced from a high of 102 to 90 this week, but the local positivity rate has been as high as 28% and "never lower" than 16%, she added. The population in Milton is about 10,000.
It is unclear how many people attended the event.