Thursday, March 11, 2021
With 1,835 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 830,000 as of Thursday, March 11, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 141 new cases today, has seen 110,931 of the state’s 830,465 confirmed cases.
With 60 new deaths reported today, a total of 16,464 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,285 deaths in Pima County, according to the March 11 report.
A total of 879 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of March 10 That’s roughly 17% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
The number of people visiting emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms has bumped up this week, with 1,186 people visiting ERs on March 10 with COVID symptoms. Still, that number is less than half of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 250 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on March 10, which is roughly 21% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
House of Representatives passes $1.9 trillion COVID relief package
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The legislation passed on a mostly party-line vote, with no Republicans supporting the package and just one Democrat, Maine Rep. Jared Golden, voting against it.
Southern Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ03) said many Americans were still struggling a year into the pandemic.
“Our friends and loved ones have died, millions remain unemployed, our children are missing critical in-person learning opportunities, and countless small businesses have shuttered,” Grijalva said. “The American Rescue Plan recognizes these traumas and direct funds to put money in the pockets of those most impacted, safely return our children to in-person learning, and get shots in the arms of everyone in the country so that we can end the pandemic once and for all. A crisis of this magnitude warrants an equal response, and this legislation gets our families, workers, and small businesses the relief they deserve.” For details on the legislation, click here.
How to get a vaccine
To find out if you are eligible for a vaccine, visit the Arizona Department of Health website.
While supplies remain limited, Pima County is providing vaccination shots to people 65 and older as well as educators, first responders and healthcare workers. Those who qualify in Pima County’s 1B priority group of eligible vaccine recipients can register for a vaccine at www.pima.gov/covid19vaccineregistration or by calling 520-222-0119.
The county plans to expand eligibility to those 55 and older as well as frontline workers once officials estimate that 55% of the currently eligible population has been vaccinated.
A state-run vaccination site at the University of Arizona was not accepting first-dose appointments as of Thursday, March 11. As the state-run POD, or point of distribution, registrations at the UA vaccination site will go through ADHS’s website. When appointments become available, you can make them at pod vaccine.azdhs.gov, and those who need assistance can call 1-844-542-8201. More details here.
Some local pharmacies are now receiving vaccine doses. To find one near you, visit the ADHS website.
Get tested: Pima County has free COVID testing
Pima County is continuing to offer a number of testing centers around town.
You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Kino Event Center (2805 E. Ajo Way) and the Udall Center (7200 E. Tanque Verde Road).
The center at the northside Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W. Ruthrauff Road, involves a saliva test designed by ASU.
Schedule an appointment at these or other drive-thru or pop-up sites at pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing can determine if you have had COVID and now have antibodies. To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
—with additional reporting from Austin Counts, Christina Duran, Jeff Gardner and Mike Truelsen
WASHINGTON – The House gave final approval Wednesday to the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, a sweeping measure that will directly touch almost every Arizonan and will send billions in aid to the state.
Republicans assailed the American Rescue Plan Act as a wasteful, partisan measure and Wednesday’s vote reflected that, with every Republican and one Maine Democrat voting against the bill. Arizona lawmakers followed suit, splitting down party lines on the bill.
“Americans need targeted, immediate relief from COVID-19, not $1.9 trillion added to the national debt to pay for partisan wish list items and other provisions that won’t take effect until years from now,” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
But while Lesko said the “people of Arizona and America deserve better,” supporters of the bill said it fills an urgent need.
“Our friends and loved ones have died, millions remain unemployed, our children are missing critical in-person learning opportunities and countless small businesses have shuttered,” Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, said in a statement released by his office. “A crisis of this magnitude warrants an equal response, and this legislation gets our families, workers, and small businesses the relief they deserve.”
President Joe Biden said he will sign the bill Friday, clearing the way for $1,400 individual stimulus payments, increased jobless benefits, tax credits for children, school and health funding and support for businesses, among other measures.
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
In any other year, the boys’ basketball teams from Marana, Ironwood Ridge, Marana Mountain View, Amphi and Flowing Wells would all be headed to the state tournament. But this is the Year of the Pandemic, and not only are all five not going, NOT ONE of those teams is going. It’s an awful shame and it can be argued that it’s either nobody’s fault or the fault of a whole lot of people, many of whom have absolutely nothing to do with high-school sports.
Here in Arizona, high school basketball season generally starts up right after Halloween, with the first games being played the week of Thanksgiving. This season, things were initially pushed back to early January. But when the New Year arrived, the virus was raging. The Arizona Interscholastic Association, acting on health guidelines, initially canceled the winter sports season (basketball, wrestling and soccer).
After a public uproar, the AIA reluctantly relented, but went with strong COVID protocols, some of which called for the complete shutdown of programs if there was an outbreak. Teams would have to play at least 10 games to be considered for state. And then the AIA added one more thing for this season only: a reduction in the number of teams that advance to postseason play. The bigger-schools classes (6A, 5A, and 4A) have, for many years, had 24 teams advance to the playoffs. This year, that number was cut to 16.
The compressed season went on, with cancellations and re-scheduling all over the place. (The Ironwood Ridge girls played three games the first week of February, then shut down their season for good. On the girls’ side, Mountain View, Canyon Del Oro, and Marana managed to squeeze in nine, 10, and 11 games, respectively, with none coming close to going to state.)
The boys’ teams from Ironwood Ridge, Mountain View, and Marana sputtered along, with each facing hurdles ranging from roster reductions to complete shutdowns. Marana, for example, went two weeks in the middle of the season with no practice, games or contact of any kind. Those missed games would prove to be crucial. (Sierra Vista Buena played an unprecedented double-header the last day of the season to reach the 10-game threshold and advance to state.)
Heading into the final week of the regular season, Mountain View and Ironwood Ridge were both in the Top 16 of the Power Points, with Marana sitting at No. 18, within striking range. In an average season, the Power Points formula utilized by the AIA is a travesty. This year, it proved to be a total abomination. If any of the three aforementioned teams could win out that last week, they’d go to state.
Marana had four games scheduled in the final week—two relatively easy games on Monday and Friday sandwiched around vital contests, one at Ironwood Ridge and a home game with rival Mountain View. The Tigers had come out of the two-week layoff in mid-February and immediately had to face Mountain View at the Mountain Lions’ place. Mountain View won a tight one, but Marana bounced back and won their next four.
Heading into that final week, Tigers Coach Sean Roebuck was guardedly optimistic. However, right before the start of that crucial week, his team had played a game at Sunnyside and, after the game, a Sunnyside kid had tested positive. Due to the protocols, Roebuck was left with almost no varsity players. He had to bring up some kids from the freshman and JV teams. They squeaked out an overtime win at CDO, but then got clobbered the next night at Ironwood Ridge.
A couple days later, Roebuck got word that some of his quarantined players had been cleared to play. This did not sit well with people from Mountain View. The Mountain Lions had severely damaged their chances earlier in the week with an inexplicable loss to 3-11 Casa Grande. Now they were missing some players and, all of a sudden, Marana was almost whole.
The game was to be played in Marana’s older, smaller Alumni Gym because the big gym was being used for a boys’ volleyball game. Even with following the tight COVID protocols on fan attendance, there was a significant number of people in the stands. Well before the tipoff and then into the game, several Mountain View fans verbally expressed their displeasure with the fact that Marana had an almost-complete roster. It was…unpleasant. Marana won by 30.
(I asked one Mt. View booster—and Marana alum—if he thought that Roebuck would ever cheat. Silence. Then I asked, “And if he were going to cheat, why didn’t he do it against Ironwood Ridge the other night?” Louder silence.)
While all the Marana-Mountain View drama was unfolding, all Ironwood Ridge had to do was beat 4-9 Flowing Wells to put themselves in great position to go to state. You guessed it: Flowing Wells 62, Ironwood Ridge 58.
Marana won the next night, finished the turbulent season 8-4, and moved up to No. 18 in the Power Points. Ironwood Ridge, Mountain View and Flowing Wells would finish 22nd, 23rd and 24th, respectively. Thus ended a forgettable 5A season that no one is ever going to be able to forget.
Oh yeah: Amphi’s boys won their 4A Conference title, but due to a Pandemic Season quirk, didn’t advance to state.
With 830 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 828,000 as of Wednesday, March 10, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 148 new cases today, has seen 110,790 of the state’s 828,630 confirmed cases.
With 78 new deaths reported today, a total of 16,404 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,270 deaths in Pima County, according to the March 10 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide dipped below 900 today for the first time since October. A total of 868 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of March 9. That’s roughly 17% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
The number of people visiting emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms has bumped up this week, with 1,118 people visiting ERs on March 9 with COVID symptoms. Still, that number is less than half of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 251 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on March 9, which is roughly 21% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
Oportun Inc., a small-dollar loan company, disclosed to investors that it is the subject of a probe by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau following reporting by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
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This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.
A federal consumer watchdog agency has launched an investigation into a company that aggressively sued thousands of Latino borrowers in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic while depicting itself as a financial ally of the community.
Oportun Inc., a Silicon Valley-based installment lender, which was founded to help Latino immigrants build credit so they can go on to achieve the American Dream, disclosed to investors last week that it had received a civil investigative demand from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The company indicated that it was part of a larger probe of small-dollar lenders by the federal watchdog, which was formed by Congress in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis in an effort to better guard Americans from abusive lending practices.
The investigation comes after ProPublica and The Texas Tribune last year revealed that Oportun had become the most litigious personal loan company in Texas, suing thousands of lower-income borrowers at a rapid pace even as other lenders halted or slowed legal action during the pandemic.
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
TEMPE – Gloves are popping. Bats are cracking. And gates are opening.
Spring training baseball is back. But should it be? And, more important, should fans be able to attend the games just when the end to a global pandemic seems within reach?
These aren’t just health questions. They’re ethical ones.
“If it’s safe for baseball teams to be practicing and to travel here from all sorts of other parts of the country and set up, then why isn’t it (safe) for the symphony orchestra to be playing? Or for all the museums to be open?” said Dr. Mary Feeney, a Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs at Arizona State University.
“And then when we extend that to fans, it’s the same sort of question. How come it’s safe for fans to go to a baseball game, but not to go see the symphony or the opera? And what does that say about our priorities as a society?”
Feeney stressed that she is not an epidemiologist, but she is up to date on guidelines and best practices. She raised important questions about how masks would be enforced at sporting events and how teams and leagues will know if each pod is actually a domestic group, or just a group of friends ignoring guidelines. She also questioned what teams and leagues will do if a fan gets sick – or worse – due to their event, and how they will handle that responsibility.
“I think these are questions they have to ask themselves because the state’s certainly not telling them what to do,” she said.
One year ago today, March 9, 2020, Pima County's first patient tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier in the day, a group of elected officials, including Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the late Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, held a press conference to warn that COVID-19 was on its way. They predicted it would be like a bad flu season and encouraged people to wash their hands more often.
At the time, few knew just how bad it would get.
By mid-March, dozens of spring events had been canceled, from the Tucson Book Festival to concerts at the Rialto Theater. Restaurants and bars shut down or switched to takeout service. Pasta, meat and especially toilet paper began flying off grocery shelves. As we all learned about Zoom, Gov. Doug Ducey and Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman announced that the public school system would go to remote learning at the end of spring break; university and college leaders did the same.
During the past 12 months, Arizona has twice been one of the world’s worst COVID hot spots. With the winter wave receding, here’s where we stand.
WASHINGTON – Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said she still believes the Senate should take up a higher minimum wage, but that didn’t keep critics from lighting into her after her Friday vote to keep the higher wage out of the latest pandemic relief package.
Sinema was one of seven Democrats who joined Republicans to reject an amendment to the American Rescue Plan that would have raised the wage to $15 an hour over five years. That move was backed by the House and the White House but rejected in the Senate on procedural grounds.
A video of Sinema appearing to curtsy before giving a thumbs-down to the minimum wage amendment brought an angry outburst on social media. With hashtags like #letthemeatcake, opponents recycled a 2014 Sinema tweet where she called a higher minimum wage a “no-brainer,” and they issued calls for her to be “primaried” by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
But analysts are split on how much damage the vote, and the ensuing hubbub, will have on Sinema’s long-term political future.
Garrett Archer, a data analyst at ABC15, said that Sinema may have to face a “credible challenger” in the 2024 primaries, something unusual for the typically outnumbered Democratic Party in Arizona.
Monday, March 8, 2021
The University of Arizona will celebrate spring 2021 commencement with a series of in-person ceremonies with the hope of honoring graduates of 2020 as well, UA President Robert C. Robbins said Monday morning.
Commencement is tentatively scheduled from Tuesday, May 11, to Tuesday, May 18, and will be live streamed and recorded.
“We're going to have many different smaller venues in order to be safe,” said Robbins. “The in-person component of the ceremonies will be for students only.”
While the planning is ongoing, the hope is to give graduates the Arizona Stadium experience, said Robbins.
Robbins paints a picture of roughly 1,000 students socially distanced and masked, each one walking to the stage and getting their moment on the Jumbotron, then walking off and out of the stadium.
“This past year has obviously been very, very challenging and I know that has had a significant impact on the senior year of this graduating class,” said Robbins. “We're all looking forward to coming together in a different, but memorable way to celebrate the academic achievements of the class of 2021.”
The Class of 2020 celebrated through a virtual commencement. Robbins wants to honor these students as well.
“They are looking at what they can do to incorporate a big celebration for those that missed out on 2020,” said Holly Jensen, vice president of communications for the university.
The university, with the help of public health officials, will continue to monitor health conditions, said Jensen.
With 783 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 827,000 as of Monday, March 8, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 103 new cases today, has seen 110,590 of the state’s 827,237 confirmed cases.
A total of 16,328 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,261 deaths in Pima County, according to the March 8 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide dipped below 1,000 this weekend for the first time since November. A total of 919 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of March 7. That’s roughly 18% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 990 people visited emergency rooms on March 7 with COVID symptoms. That number is roughly 42% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 256 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on March 7, which is roughly 22% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
