During a news conference Tuesday, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced details when it comes to the reopening of Duval County beaches and the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.
Starting Wednesday, all beach restrictions will be lifted. Curry said there will no longer be restrictions on hours or on activities "to allow our residents to enjoy the beach line."
As of right now, hours for Duval beaches are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. with limited exercise activity like walking, running and surfing.
Despite lifting restrictions, Curry encouraged the public to continue to practice social distancing at the beaches and to "be aware of space around you," as well as keep group sizes small to no larger than 10 people.
"Let's be responsible and not let a few mess this up," Curry said.
Also during the news conference, Curry announced that the Jacksonville zoo will be reopening with safety measures in place starting this weekend.
Curry revealed that ticket will only be available for purchase online at the zoo's website and guests will only be allowed to enter the zoo's parking lot if they have tickets.
There will be three time slots available to guests, all with a three-hour visit. It's from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets will be limited to 1,500 for each block of time.
Additionally, zoo staff will be required to take their temperatures upon arriving at work, as well as are required to wear masks. Employees have also worked 11 hour shifts in making the reopening possible.
"For their own safety, we split the entire animal crew into two shifts so they wouldn't mingle with each other. So, we could make sure if we did have an outbreak here we would have some people who weren't exposed," said Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens Executive Director Tony Vecchio.
Curry said there will be 25 hand sanitizing stations throughout the zoo and that only exhibits will be open.
"The zoo is one of our most treasured aspects," Curry said. "... glad to see it reopening ... for our residents to enjoy ... this is the first step that could lead to further [reopenings]."
Curry hopes that Jacksonville will be able to roll out "Phase Two" of reopenings in the upcoming weeks, but is working with Gov. Ron DeSantis to determine the next steps.
On Monday, "Phase One" rolled out under the state guidelines enforced by DeSantis, which included restaurants and retail operating at 25 percent indoor capacity, as well as other social distancing guidelines in place such as spaced-out seating by six feet.
Hotels and lodging were included in "Phase One," allowing the business to return taking normal reservations. AirBnbs, however, were not included.
Gyms, hair salons and nail salons were also left out in the first phase of reopening. Currently, Curry isn't sure when those businesses will be able to reopen.
When it comes to the citywide stimulus system that kicked off Monday morning, he said that the city distributed roughly $2 million in relief funds to the residents of Jacksonville.
As of Tuesday, there were 1,084 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Duval County with 26 deaths. Curry said the city currently has a 3.8 percentage of positive cases and that the percentage has gone down in recent weeks.
