ORLANDO, Fla. — So-called "strike teams" that did a surprise drop in on Orange County businesses to check on coronavirus safety measures visited 11 bars on Saturday night and found none in compliance, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday afternoon.

Eight of the bars are in downtown Orlando and three in the area of the University of Central Florida, Demings said.

“Our strike teams found no masks, no social distancing, no hand sanitizers and no disinfecting at every one of the bars visited,” he said. “So far, our community has cooperated with us. We have a few people who are probably more motivated by profit than they are about protecting their own customers.”

Officials said the bars out of compliance were The Knight’s Pub, Knight Library, Infinity Nightclub, Elixir, The Basement Orlando, The Office Orlando, Saddle Up, Gilt, The Treehouse Orlando, Celine Nightclub, and The Attic Orlando.

The mayor added that strike-team members received rude receptions from patrons and a lack of cooperation from some bar owners. He also suggested that strike-team members required the presence of law enforcement.

Demings made his comments at a coronavirus briefing that he conducts regularly with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County.

His comments also came as Orange County approached 52,000 coronavirus cases and as Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, declared Monday that the U.S. must “double down on public health measures.”

Orange County leaders approved the coronavirus strike teams in July. Under the plan, teams could randomly visit any business in the county, including those inside municipalities. The strike teams would, among other things, ensure businesses practiced social distancing, followed the county's mask-wearing mandate, and posted safety signage.

Demings said Monday that the strike teams had seen 86% compliance in visits to 4,910 businesses. He mentioned visits last week in which task force members saw especially high compliance rates, with grateful and cooperative business owners.

But “Saturday night was a different story,” Demings said. “We want to thank in advance — I’m going to say this — we’re going to thank the Orlando Police Department and Orange County Sheriff's Office for supporting the compliance team members who went out into the community.”

Demings said some strike-team members “were insulted by the patrons, and I’m told that some of the bar owners were less than cooperative. So, I say this to the bar owners: I wish that bar owners didn't view these visits as intrusive. We're simply trying to keep our bars open. Perhaps we can learn from the cautionary tales of other metro areas where bars are being closed.”

Over the weekend, Spectrum News 13 reporter Emily Braun happened to shoot video at one of the non-compliant bars, The Knight’s Pub. The video showed huge crowds that lacked social distancing.

Kevin James, who lives near downtown Orlando, acknowledged that, “we’re all exhausted; we’re quarantined out.”

But he said people should think of others — like his 79-year-old mother — more than just having a good time.

“And I want her to be safe just like I want anyone else’s mother, grandmother, to be safe,” James said.

Demings said the compliance teams will visit the bars again, and he hopes the visits will be enough to change their behavior.

Asked what steps the county might take to better ensure compliance on safety measures, Demings pointed out that, by executive order, Gov. Ron DeSantis removed the ability of local governments to penalize people for not wearing masks.

In late September, DeSantis moved the state into Phase 3 of reopening, which includes allowing bars and restaurants to operate at 100% capacity as long as they're practicing sanitation protocols.

“There remains a possibility that we could have penalties for businesses,” Demings said, but the governor “set the threshold very high.”

Yet he said he’s “not afraid to make adjustments and do it in a timely manner, so I will caucus with my staff, and we will make some decisions going forward.”

Demings said he prefers to continue efforts to convince businesses to comply on their own.

Dyer added: “We need to protect ourselves and others, and I want to stress what Mayor Demings just said. The most effective way to keep our businesses open, to keep our restaurants open, to keep our bars open, is to do our pandemic precautions. It's to wear a mask. It's to socially distance … We want to keep all our businesses open, but it's incumbent on all of us to do our part if we're going to be able to do that.”