Bucs fans flouted Tampa's face mask mandate as they took to the streets to celebrate their Super Bowl win
- Face masks were required both indoors and outdoors in Tampa during the Super Bowl.
- But Bucs fans largely ignored that as thousands celebrated their win in the streets.
- Police worked into the early hours dispersing the large crowds, according to local reports.
You'd hardly know a pandemic was going in Tampa, Florida, on Sunday night, where thousands of Buccaneers fans packed the streets to celebrate their Super Bowl win.
Ahead of the championship, the mayor of Tampa issued an executive order requiring face masks to be worn both indoors and outdoors.
It applied around the Raymond James Stadium, where the game was played, and also in the nightlife districts of downtown Tampa. Anyone caught without a mask in these areas could be fined up to $500, it said.
Reporters from local outlets Fox 13 and WTSP covering the celebrations say few people were following the rule as they partied.
Pictures and videos from Tampa on Sunday night showed people packed shoulder-to-shoulder in many areas. The guidance was to keep a six-foot distance from others.
According to the news station WFLA, police worked into the early hours trying to disperse the crowds.
Among the other precautions put in place were a cap of 22,000 spectators in the stadium itself, which included 7,500 health care workers who had received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Around the stadium, public address systems blared warnings urging fans to wear face masks, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Insider late on Sunday that the precautions ahead of the game looked promising, but watching how it went down left him unsettled.
"On paper it looks reassuring," Chin-Hong said. "But the reality is sobering."
Chin-Hong said he was also concerned about the prevalence in Florida of a more-contagious variant of the virus, which was first identified in the UK. Florida has reported more cases of that variant than anywhere else in the country.
According to a preliminary study, cases involving the new strain are doubling every 10 days in the US, and could become the most prevalent strain in a month.
Chin-Hong said it's not a question of whether transmission occurred at the Super Bowl, but "how much."
Cases and deaths in Hillsborough County, Florida - where Tampa is located - have been steadily on the rise since mid-June.
Florida has been one of the worst-hit states for the outbreak. It ranks third in terms of cases and fourth in terms of deaths in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.