Memorial Day weekend crowds that one official said were “off the charts” at Arizona vacation spots have health experts worried that tourist behavior could lead to an increase of COVID-19 of cases.

With the state’s stay-at-home orders largely lifted this month, tourists flocked to sites like Lake Havasu, Scottsdale and Lake Pleasant, according to news reports. At Lake Havasu, one official said, “The lake was full, the river was full. Every activity we had, there were people involved in.”

While it was legal, it may not have been wise, according to one health official, who said the “behavior over the holiday weekend will increase transmission of the virus.”

“Whether that translates into a big increase of cases, we don’t know yet,” said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association. “But it was definitely the kind of the behavior that increases the spread of the virus.”

Those concerns were echoed by Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, who said images of crowds in Old Town Scottsdale were “disturbing, and frankly show a real lack of common sense and civic responsibility.”

“It is imperative that all businesses comply with the governor’s executive orders – to ignore them is to risk faster spread of this disease and further damage to our physical and economic wellbeing,” Lane said in a statement Tuesday.

After stay-at-home orders shut down much of the state’s travel and tourism – and other industries – this spring, Gov. Doug Ducey began lifting the restrictions earlier this month.

PHOENIX – Mahleej Zara woke up worried Sunday that celebrations for the end of Ramadan would be dampened by COVID-19 restrictions – but that was before the “car parade” let the Islamic Community Center in Tempe celebrate together while remaining safely distanced.

It was just one of the changes that Arizona Muslims made this year for Eid al-Fitr, which ends the month of fasting of Ramadan. Other mosques held car parades for the holiday, encouraged prayers online or at home or, in one instance, allowed worshipers in the mosque who wore masks and prayed a safe distance from one another.

At the Tempe mosque, Imam Omar Tawil estimated that 250 to 300 cars circled the center Sunday morning, honking as they drove by in cars adorned with balloons and windows painted with sayings like “Eid Mubarak” and “CovEID.” Volunteers wearing masks and gloves handed out small presents and boxes of sweets.

“It was personal enough, and as personal as you could get,” Tawil said. “And we were still wearing masks and still practicing social distancing.”

He said planning for the parade was an “organic” process by volunteers and mosque board members who were looking for “an opportunity to feel what they normally feel in the month of Ramadan,” a sense of community and belonging.

Leena Tohaibeche, a Tempe resident who took part in the parade with her family, said it let her feel safe while feeling herself part of the celebration.

Welcome to the end of Tuesday! We hope you had a good but safe long weekend. Now let's take a look at the stories that we covered today.

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona reached 16,783 as of Tuesday, May 26, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• John Henry's Bar in downtown Tucson played tribute to Gordo's famed commercials by recreating one to announce the limited-capacity reopening over Memorial Day weekend.
• Pima County Public Library has some great news to share!
• Last week, Governor Doug Ducey announced that $500,000 from Arizona's Coronavirus Relief Fund had been allocated to 10 organizations providing out-of-school child care in the state.
• If you’re one of those people who never get a flu shot, make sure you do this year. If you normally do, make sure you don’t miss it.
• Banner Health announced a move to begin purchasing masks for the next for its facilities from domestic manufacturer Prestige Ameritech, the healthcare system announced in a Tuesday press release.
• Just because venues are closed doesn’t mean live shows aren’t taking place, and The Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley is on a tear this summer, hosting several concerts a week in its parking lot.
• The Pima County Department Environmental Quality has issued a warning for an elevated potential for ground-level ozone air pollution in the Tucson metro area for today, May 26.
• Reopening states after the COVID-19 lockdown raises unnerving questions for working parents who depend on some form of child care, from nannies to day camp.
• The University of Arizona-led spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is planned to collect a sample of the surface of an asteroid on October 20. And if successful, it will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

The University of Arizona-led spacecraft OSIRIS-REx is planned to collect a sample of the surface of an asteroid on October 20. And if successful, it will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx launched from the Earth in September 2016, and is planned to return with its cargo in 2023. The spacecraft, part of a NASA program, will collect rocks and dust from the surface of the asteroid Bennu in order to better understand "the initial stages of planet formation and the source of organic compounds available for the origin of life."
The announcement of a sample retrieval date comes after a successful sample-collection rehearsal last month, where OSIRIS-REx also captured pictures of the asteroid's rocky surface. A second rehearsal date is slated for Aug. 11. 

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Click here to read their biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Reopening states after the COVID-19 lockdown raises unnerving questions for working parents who depend on some form of child care, from nannies to day camp.

Instead of coming home with a snotty nose, is your child going to bring back the coronavirus? And how do you know your in-home babysitter or nanny, even your child’s teacher, isn’t a symptom-free spreader?

The short answer is that there are no easy answers. Every family’s budget and needs and risk tolerance are going to be different. ProPublica scoured the latest research and talked to seven infectious disease and public health experts to help think through the issues facing parents.

We were surprised to find the experts were reassuring. In fact, with the proper precautions and monitoring in place, most of them thought parents could safely rely on caregivers, day care centers and perhaps even counselors at sleep-away camp.

Banner Health announced a move to begin purchasing masks for the next for its facilities from domestic manufacturer Prestige Ameritech, the healthcare system announced in a Tuesday press release.

After partnering with Premier Inc, Banner acquired a minority stake in Prestige, which manufactures personal protective equipment, including the N95 respirator and surgical masks. As part of the deal, Banner announced a commitment to acquiring a portion of its masks from Prestige for up to six years, including a three-year renewal option.

Prestige Ameritech is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas at its 220,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

According to Banner, worldwide border closures and supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the risk to daily operations presented to healthcare operators.

“Overreliance on foreign manufacturers is a key reason why we’ve had concerns about the consistency of available PPE supplies at care sites across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Banner Chief Financial OfficerDennis Laraway, in a statement.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last week, Governor Doug Ducey announced that $500,000 from Arizona's Coronavirus Relief Fund had been allocated to 10 organizations providing out-of-school child care in the state.

The funding will support "extended hours and enrichment programs to meet the increased demand of child care for families while students distance learn and parents or guardians work." 
The funding will go to:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson
• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Casa Grande
• Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Arizona
• Boys & Girls Club of Flagstaff 
• Boys & Girls Club of Round Valley
• Boys & Girls Club of Bisbee
• The CLUB for YOUth Kingman
• Cobre Valley Youth Club
• Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center

Pima County Public Library has some great news to share!

WE'RE GOING FINE FREE!

• If you have overdue fines on your account, they'll be cleared on July 1, 2020.
• We're introducing auto-renew! This means we will automatically renew your items, unless there is a hold on them (sorry, you've got to return these items by the due date). Items will be auto-renewed up to 4 times! We will continue to send you email updates about auto-renewals and due dates.

You are still responsible for returning your items...

We've come to the end of another work week, and to the beginning of Memorial Day Weekend. Let's take a look at the stories we've covered today.

• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona topped 15,608 as of Friday, May 22, according to the morning report from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
• The travel forecast for this Memorial Day weekend is fuzzy – just another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• If you have Medicare and want to be tested for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Trump administration has good news.
• Good news, book lovers, the Pima County Public Library is switching to an auto-renew system this summer that will automatically renew your checkout instead of instituting a late fee.
• On the heels of a pair of impressive performances this week, the Gaslight Music Hall in Oro Valley is hosting another two drive-in concerts next Wednesday and Thursday.
• The Grand Canyon will reopen on a limited basis for Memorial Day weekend, a move critics call “premature” during the COVID-19 pandemic and “tone-deaf” in the face of startling infection rates in the neighboring Navajo Nation.
• The YMCA in northwest Tucson reopened its doors to the community on Wednesday with added safety precautions and limited hours to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
• The arts and crafts community around Cathey’s Sewing & Vacuum stores have kept busy during quarantine by sewing tens of thousands of masks for local hospitals, first responders, and law enforcement.
• A former White House aide won a $3 million federal contract to supply respirator masks to Navajo Nation hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona 11 days after he created a company to sell personal protective equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The arts and crafts community around Cathey’s Sewing & Vacuum stores have kept busy during quarantine by sewing tens of thousands of masks for local hospitals, first responders and law enforcement.

The Tucson-based business is welcoming volunteers to sew face masks for essential workers at any of their three locations. Over the past two months, volunteers at the family business have produced an estimated 35,000 masks – and they don’t plan on stopping.

“Our purpose in doing this is to help the community,” said owner Donny Cathey. “Tucson and Southern Arizona have been unbelievably supportive of our family business and all the families that our business supports. I believe that any local business such as ours has a duty to give back to the community that supports it.”

The initiative began when the local non-profit Beads of Courage called Cathey to help Banner Health in making specialized masks. These masks are made with a blue-and-white sterilization wrap normally used with medical instruments.

The volunteer effort is spearheaded by Judy Payne, 59, who was disheartened when COVID-19 stopped her from attending many of her favorite activities, such as teaching quilting classes and babysitting her grandchildren.