This time of year is normally peak season for Key West’s Duval Street with tourists. Missing today is the big bucks for booze, food and tips because of the current pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the the Southernmost City with no tourists and no one knows when they will be allowed back. This is devastating for an island that runs on visitors.

Many hospitality workers have been laid off. Schools are closed. Child-care centers are limited. Meanwhile, rent is due April 1.

The number of coronavirus cases in Florida has climbed past 1,100, with another death in Palm Beach. There are now over 42,000 cases in the United States alone.

Retailers had already started shuttering their shops ahead of the city’s 5 p.m. deadline for nonessential businesses to close.

The Courthouse Deli had a handwritten sign on its front door allowing only four people inside at a time.

Several locals on Duval, the iconic downtown street that runs from the Atlantic to the Gulf, greeted each other in passing. A golf cart filled with people hoisting beer cans rumbled by the closed-down shops.

Artisans, a shop that sells jewelry and collectibles, posted a sign stating, “We wish all of you good luck and good health and we look forward to seeing you on the other side of this pandemic!”

Outside Caroline’s restaurant a woman serving iced coffee at Cuban Coffee Queen rang up a customer’s order wearing latex gloves. These are times none of of us have seen before.