People Make 'Mad Dash' To Florida Beach That Reopened Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

People flocked to a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday afternoon after officials partially lifted restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus .

CNN correspondent Randi Kaye, who was reporting from the scene, described it as a mad dash here for the ocean on Fridays broadcast of Anderson Cooper 360.

Once police gave the all-clear, all the people who had been lined up in the streets waiting to get to the beach when they opened today at 5 p.m., they just flooded the area, said Kaye.

They were biking, they were running, they were swimming, surfing, they were fishing some of them, a lot of people brought their dogs, she continued. It was as if they had been cooped up for so long, for years. Thats how they were behaving when really it had only been about a month because they first closed this beach on March 20.

Kaye said there wasnt a whole lot of social distancing going on, with some groups set up on the sand with beach coolers and other people sunbathing.

A surfer interviewed by CNN said they would not be surprised if the easing of restrictions did not last very long, given the number of people whod arrived.

Another beachgoer noted there were so many people standing around, everyones so close together.

Check out the segment here:

\"It was a mad dash here for the ocean,\" says @randikayeCNN, from a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Florida.

But while coolers and surfboards were prevalent, social distancing methods were sadly less so.https://t.co/33b3i6Thie pic.twitter.com/Trw9LVm4yY

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"It was a mad dash here for the ocean," says @randikayeCNN , from a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Florida.

But while coolers and surfboards were prevalent, social distancing methods were sadly less so.https://t.co/33b3i6Thie pic.twitter.com/Trw9LVm4yY
Anderson Cooper 360 (@AC360) April 18, 2020

And photographs taken in Jacksonville on Friday afternoon here: