Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Pima County had seen 12,114 of the state's 128,097 confirmed cases.
A total of 2,337 people have died after contracting the virus.
Maricopa County has 84,233 of the state's cases.
Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,517 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state.
A total of 1,553 people visited ERs yesterday.
A total of 970 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
In response to the rising cases, Gov. Doug Ducey said last week that restaurants would be limited to 50 percent capacity, though he took no other steps to reduce the spread of the virus other than announcing that the state would be stepping up its testing program in the weeks to come.
Ducey said the state was reaching a plateau since local officials had begun requiring masks in some communities but stopped short of mandating the wearing of masks himself. Ducey said it would be better if Arizonans decided to do that without his mandate.
Democrats in the Arizona Senate released a joint statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in Ducey's failure to take further action.
"The newest actions to curb COVID-19 in Arizona are reactionary, piecemeal half measures that are inadequate to substantially slow the spread of the virus." the lawmakers wrote. "We have urged, and continue to urge, the governor to take swift and preemptive actions to curtail the virus’s spread, especially in light of Arizona being reported as the worst in the world for the COVID-19 pandemic. If we truly care about the health and economy of the state, then we need another statewide stay at home order. Only limiting indoor dining to less than 50 percent is woefully inadequate to significantly curb the spread of COVID-19 in Arizona. This fragmented approach has clear economic consequences–consequences that could have been avoided had we taken the pandemic seriously earlier. Taking more aggressive action now will allow us to safely open schools in the future."
Ducey's handling of the virus has caused a steep drop in his job approval numbers, according to a poll released yesterday by OH Predictive Insights. Pollster Mike Noble noted that in his latest survey of 600 likely 2020 voters, conducted July 6-7, showed that voters had sharply turned on Ducey's handling of the coronavirus, with his approval dropping to 35 percent with 63 percent disapproval. In a similar June poll, 59 percent of Arizonans approved of Ducey's handling of the coronavirus and only 37 disapproved.
“As goes the coronavirus so goes Doug Ducey’s fortunes among Arizona voters,” said OHPI Chief of Research Mike Noble in a prepared statement. “When the outbreak was being contained, Ducey was popular. Now that cases are on the rise, his disapproval rating is too.”
Monday, July 13, 2020
- The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona climbed past 123,000 as of Monday, July 13, after the state reported 1,357 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- On the morning of Monday, July 13, the Southwest Area Incident Management Team formally transferred command over the Bighorn Fire back to the Coronado National Forest. This came after fire crews announced the fire was 92 percent contained after burning through roughly 119,000 acres.
- Following the lead of the Big Ten and others, the Pac-12 Conference announced its football teams will play only conference games in 2020.
- “I am not going to lose another company,” Cardiff told his lawyer in an April 5 email, just before detailing a fantasy list of people he wanted to place on the board of his new venture, VPL Medical Inc.
- So, how does one write about Palm Springs in a spoiler free way? For starters, you probably don’t ask that question, because now I’ve revealed the movie has the sort of twists and turns that would make it very easy to spoil in a review.
Jason Cardiff didn’t want his new business to end up like his last one, an alleged pyramid scheme involving robocalling and selling unwitting customers bogus remedies to lose weight or quit smoking. One of his ventures, Prolongz, falsely claimed to offer men “increased ejaculation control.”
“I am not going to lose another company,” Cardiff told his lawyer in an April 5 email, just before detailing a fantasy list of people he wanted to place on the board of his new venture, VPL Medical Inc.
His wish list included Brian Travis Kennedy, a right-wing think tank leader and pundit with connections to the Trump administration, who Cardiff cryptically said could be the company’s “advisor to the White House.” That didn’t work out, Cardiff says.
He also wanted to make sure he had controlling stock of the company and the ability to buy out his business partner if he wanted, according to the email.
“As I (have) raised all the capital and done all the work once again,” Cardiff wrote in typo-laden prose, “I am not going to lose out on perhaps my biggest company to date. Further I have a group that wants to put in 10 mil this week.”
Pima County had 11,856 of the state's 123,824 confirmed cases.
A total of 2,245 people have died after contracting the virus.
Maricopa County has 81,216 of the state's cases.
Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,373 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state.
A total of 1,650 people visited ERs yesterday.
A total of 936 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
In response to the rising cases, Gov. Doug Ducey said last week that restaurants would be limited to 50 percent capacity, though he took no other steps to reduce the spread of the virus other than announcing that the state would be stepping up its testing program in the weeks to come.
Ducey said the state was reaching a plateau since local officials had begun requiring masks in some communities but stopped short of mandating the wearing of masks himself. Ducey said it would be better if Arizonans decided to do that without his mandate.
Democrats in the Arizona Senate released a joint statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in Ducey's failure to take further action.
"The newest actions to curb COVID-19 in Arizona are reactionary, piecemeal half measures that are inadequate to substantially slow the spread of the virus." the lawmakers wrote. "We have urged, and continue to urge, the governor to take swift and preemptive actions to curtail the virus’s spread, especially in light of Arizona being reported as the worst in the world for the COVID-19 pandemic. If we truly care about the health and economy of the state, then we need another statewide stay at home order. Only limiting indoor dining to less than 50 percent is woefully inadequate to significantly curb the spread of COVID-19 in Arizona. This fragmented approach has clear economic consequences–consequences that could have been avoided had we taken the pandemic seriously earlier. Taking more aggressive action now will allow us to safely open schools in the future."
Friday, July 10, 2020
The governor’s announcement came on the heels of his office’s release of millions of dollars to help schools reopen this fall. The fact that the order came from the governor, and not a vote by the Legislature, has raised questions for some state lawmakers.
In an email to Cronkite News, the conservative Republican from Snowflake said Arizona should not be governed through executive orders, noting that “the legislative branch makes policy and budget allocations, not the executive branch.”
“It is time to stop, call a special session, and get back to the constitutional operations of our state,” Allen said.
Rep. Michelle Udall, R-Mesa, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, doubts that a special legislative session is feasible, and she worries how many legislators would actually show up because of COVID-19 concerns and obligations to family members who may be sick or at risk.
“Calling a special session would end up with a bunch of people running in different directions, which is not going to help,” Udall said. “I don’t think we have enough consensus to get anything done.”
Despite such reservations, Udall said, she “would love” to hold a special session to address education issues in the state – under different circumstances.
However, she and Allen both support giving schools the authority to delay the start of in-person classes. Allen said she recently worked on her own legislation that would have provided, among other items, “local control and flexibility for schools opening and determination of health protocols.”
The governor’s delay of the school year was part of his June 29 executive order that also shut down the state’s bars, gyms, water parks, movie theaters and river tubing for 30 days.
“It would be more harmful to keep children locked out of schools and less harmful and less risky for children to go back to schools,” said Biggs, R-Gilbert, during a news conference at the Capitol. “That’s the bottom line. It is as simple as that.”
But while President Donald Trump and his supporters insist that keeping kids at home is “extremely harmful,” educators overwhelmingly say the harm would come from reopening without proper safeguards against COVID-19 in place.
Most are like Arizona Schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman, who said in a statement Thursday that while she wants to get students back in the classroom, “we cannot ignore the severity of COVID-19 in our state and how that impacts adults and children alike in our school communities.”
Hoffman tweeted Tuesday, when the White House hosted a daylong panel on reopening schools, that the safety of whole communities could be at stake, not just students and teachers.
“Those valued members of our schools need more assurances that schools and communities have the resources they need to stop the virus from spreading widely throughout their community,” her tweet said. “I cannot provide those assurances to the adults and students who are medically vulnerable in our school community at this time.”
As a 38-year-old with hypertension and asthma, he had been pushing for weeks to get information about COVID-19. As people around Wilson began contracting the deadly disease, he sought masks and testing, fearing for his health and possibly his life.
Then smoke from the Bush Fire northeast of Mesa rolled into Holbrook in mid-June, worsening Wilson’s respiratory concerns. When he called his brother on June 20, the air quality was poor.
“You could look out the small window and see it was really hazy outside,” Wilson recalled in an interview with Cronkite News. “And we knew the smoke was inside.”
The fire, which has since been contained, prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people, but Wilson couldn’t leave. He’s in lockup at the Navajo County Jail, where COVID-19 was first detected about the time the smoke hit town. Wilson has been held for almost a year on a parole violation for a marijuana conviction nearly 17 years ago.
Now he passes time in increments, one court date at a time. The days until his Aug. 3 release hearing will be spent waiting for phone calls, to learn whether prosecutors will succeed in their appeal to the state Supreme Court to stop it.
So I stayed home tonight and watched Netflix. Caught up on Breaking Bad episode “Half Measures.” Ends with this great line: “The moral of the story is I chose a half measure, when I should have gone all the way. I'll never make that mistake again. No more half measures.” pic.twitter.com/KYcJg2YS0F
— Jan Brewer (@GovBrewer) July 10, 2020
Pima County had 11,172 of the state's 116,892 confirmed cases.
A total of 2,082 people have died after contracting the virus.
Maricopa County has nearly two-thirds of the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 76,328.
Hospitals remain under pressure. The report shows that 3,432 COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday in the state.
A total of 1,875 people visited ERs yesterday.
A total of 876 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
In response to the rising cases, Gov. Doug Ducey said yesterday that restaurants would be limited to 50 percent capacity, though he took no other steps to reduce the spread of the virus.
Ducey did say that the state was reaching a plateau since local officials had begun requiring masks in some communities but stopped short of mandating the wearing of masks himself. Ducey said it would be better if Arizonans decided to do that without his mandate.
Democrats in the Arizona Senate released a joint statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in Ducey's failure to take further action. The statement reads:
Thursday, July 9, 2020
During a press conference this afternoon, Gov. Doug Ducey was in the hot seat as reporters asked why he hasn’t taken more action to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Arizona.
As of today, there are 108,614 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 2,038 Arizonans dying after contracting the virus. Arizona has seen a 50 percent increase in cases since June 21 and is the new national hotspot for the virus.
Ducey explained that the state’s stay-at-home order ended on May 15, after weeks of decreasing positivity rates in testing. When he lifted the order, he assured the press that Arizona "was clearly on the other side of this pandemic."
During the first couple of weeks immediately following the state’s reopening, case numbers remained stagnant. But beginning two weeks after the order was lifted, numbers began to skyrocket and there is currently widespread transmission.
On June 29, Ducey announced that schools could welcome students back to their campuses on Aug. 17. Reporters questioned the governor on whether he thinks that date should be moved back even further, or if schools should even resume in-person instruction at all.
Ducey said kids will go back to school when it's safe to do so, and the Aug. 17 deadline is an “aspirational date.”
“Our decisions are being informed by parents, teachers and superintendents,” he said. “Our children need an education, and we believe the optimum place to do is in a school. If that's not possible, we can do a lot of this virtually.”
He said over the next 10 days, the government will assess the most recent data and provide more clarity on how to move forward.
Ducey announced that restaurants across the state should limit their indoor dining capacity to less than 50 percent. He said there should be as few people inside each establishment as possible.
The governor also announced an initiative called Project Catapult which intends to dramatically increase COVID-19 testing in the state. Ducey said it is a partnership with Sonora Quest Laboratories and others in the private sector. He said there will be an “exponential increase” in testing and processing abilities, and promised that 60,000 tests would be administered per day by the end of August.
At several moments during the meeting, the governor assured reporters that his decisions regarding COVID-19 mitigation will be based on the best interest of public health, not politics.
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , Arizona , Spike , Governor Doug Ducey , Schools Reopening , Testing , Project Catapult , Image
