Monday, June 22, 2020
Don't forget to vote in the Best of Tucson® 2020!
- The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona jumped over 54,000 as of Monday, June 22, after the state reported 2,196 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- Right before President Donald Trump unveiled punitive measures against China on May 29, he inserted a surprise into his prepared text. “We will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization,” he announced during a press conference in the Rose Garden.
- The Bighorn Fire continued its spread northeast across the Catalina Mountains over the weekend, reducing its containment levels by more than half.
- With COVID-19 taking an especially heavy toll on Native Americans, tribal leaders and mental health experts have stepped up efforts to address the emotional suffering brought on by ongoing lockdowns and so much loss.
- Local Greek eatery Athens on 4th Avenue decided to call it quits last Saturday evening after serving the Old Pueblo for 27 years.
- A new partnership between Pima County government and the Downtown Tucson Partnership will distribute personal protective equipment to downtown businesses in the coming weeks.
- As the top spot for the Pima County Attorney’s Office opens up this August, candidate Mark Diebolt believes his 23-year record as a deputy county attorney speaks for itself.
- As the school year draws near, many questions are still in the air about the University of Arizona’s campus re-entry plans.
- President Donald Trump’s scheduled rally in Phoenix on Tuesday will go ahead as planned, and Mayor Kate Gallego has pledged not to enforce local face mask requirements.
PHOENIX – President Donald Trump’s scheduled rally in Phoenix on Tuesday will go ahead as planned, and Mayor Kate Gallego has pledged not to enforce local face mask requirements. The announcements came as Arizona’s COVID-19 cases surpassed 50,000 over the weekend.
On Friday, Phoenix City Council approved requirements of wearing face masks but Gallego told CNN Sunday that those rules will not be enforced at Trump’s rally at Dream City Church in north-central Phoenix. Gallego told CNN she hopes Gov. Doug Ducey will wear a mask at the rally to set a good example and “send a strong message.”
Ducey, she said, “believes in masks and he could be a great spokesman for telling the young people who are there to wear masks, but the best spokesman would be the president.”
As the school year draws near, many questions are still in the air about the University of Arizona’s campus re-entry plans. Logistics have already changed multiple times, but the UA remains firm in their intent to reopen the campus to in-person activity in just a few weeks. The Weekly’s intrepid team of summer interns have reached out to their fellow students to find out how UA’s latest class feels about returning to campus during a pandemic.
Lam Nguyen came to the U.S. during high school as an international student from Vietnam. In pursuit of studying optical sciences and engineering, he decided to attend the University of Arizona. This upcoming fall semester will be his junior year, and despite concerns of the campus reopening, Nguyen remains hopeful.
“It would be risky but definitely doable,” he said. “I think the school will take a lot of safety measures, of course, to put the students first.”
Nguyen noted the challenges students face when the school transitioned courses online in March.
“Our health was affected a lot,” Nguyen said. “You went walking miles and miles every day at school to sitting at home in front of a computer.”
For him, the biggest challenge was the cancellation of lab classes.
“It’s definitely better for engineers and science students to be able to go into the lab. To have an in-person experience instead of trying to look online,” Nguyen said.
At the moment, he's living in Tucson for the summer away from his parents.
“My parents are currently in Vietnam and the country is doing really well with the whole COVID situation,” Nguyen said. “I am not as worried for them than I am worried about the situation in this country right now.”
However, Nguyen says he is still managing social distancing and only going out for essential travel. He also says that he is looking forward to the new school year.
Adela Granados is a first-generation college student majoring in creative writing. Since she lost her job at a campus grocery store thanks to the pandemic, Granados has tried to keep herself busy with keeping in shape and volunteering in a Korean language study camp, which is also her minor. She is worried about returning back to campus in the fall for her junior year.
“I find it very stupid to be reopening in the fall when this whole pandemic hasn’t blown over yet,” Granados said. “I feel like we are a little too lax in what we should be doing to prevent it. The minute that we are allowing small businesses to reopen again, everyone sees this as a green light to pursue their lives like normal, which is very not conducive to what we are trying to do.”
Granados is OK with shops and restaurants reopening in order to stay in business, she thinks it's still important to be careful. She suggests the university to have a trial period before fully reopening the campus and provide resources for the students.
“A test run wouldn’t hurt,” Granados said. “I find that we can never be too careful… The UA should provide preventive measures like gloves or masks ready on hand for those who don’t have them.”
Granados is keeping an open mind as the university reveals more of its plans, but she's ready to get back to the classroom.
“I am very, very cooped up,” Granados said. “I am very much an introvert, but it’s getting to me too.”
Interviews conducted by Mekayla Phan. More student perspectives to come as the school year draws closer.
A new partnership between Pima County government and the Downtown Tucson Partnership will distribute personal protective equipment to downtown businesses in the coming weeks.
In response to the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in Arizona, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted on June 19 to require that face masks be worn in public by everyone over the age of 5 when six feet of physical distance cannot be maintained.
To help businesses meet that mandate, Pima County and DTP will begin distributing non-medical PPE such as face masks, sanitizer, and gloves to businesses in the Business Improvement District for a limited time, until supply chains stabilize.
The distribution is intended to be a “backstop” and is only available to businesses with less than 50 employees, according to a press release. All businesses are encouraged to source PPE on their own if they can.
“This is not just about personal responsibility, this is community responsibility—our responsibility to others, especially the vulnerable who need us to do what is right to keep them safe,” said Chairman Ramón Valadez in the release. “Wearing a mask is not a burden, it is a badge of honor that shows you are doing your part to try to stop the spread of this horrible disease and help save lives.”
To get their supply of non-medical PPE, businesses are required to complete a request form by Thursday, June 25. DTP Chief Sanitation Officer Russ Stone will pick up the orders from the county’s warehouse and deliver them directly to qualifying businesses.
According to the release, DTP will act as a liaison between downtown businesses and the county government, in order to facilitate a “successful and safe reopening.”
For more information, visit downtowntucson.org.
Tags: Downtown Tucson Partnership , Pima County , Masks , Gloves , Personal Protective Equipment , PPE , Image
“Please stay connected with relatives and neighbors by phone or video chat and remind them that they have support,” Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said recently, imploring Navajos to take care of their mental well-being as well as their physical health.
“If you are feeling stress or anxious, take the time to take a deep breath, stretch, or pray,” he said. “Exercise by working out or by doing household chores and avoid unhealthy foods and drinks. We must protect ourselves and others.”
More than 320 COVID-19 deaths have been reported on the vast Navajo Reservation, which lies mostly in Arizona but also covers parts of western New Mexico and southern Utah.
The tribe has the highest per capita rate of cases in the country: 6,747, as of Wednesday, among the 173,000 people who live on the reservation. That rate tops hard-hit New York and New Jersey, according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Pima County had 5,587 of the state's 54,586 confirmed cases.
That's up almost 18,000 from last Monday's total of 36,705 cases.
A total of 1,342 people have died after contracting the virus, including 242 in Pima County.
Maricopa County has more than half the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 31,650.
Arizona hospitals continue to see a steady rise in the number of people hospitalized with COVID symptoms, as well as more people visiting emergency rooms. This morning's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that as of yesterday, a record 1,992 Arizonans were hospitalized, a jump of 983 people from the 1,009 hospitalized on June 1. A record number of 1,228 arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on June 20. Previous to June, the number of people seeking help in emergency rooms never topped 667, but the daily number hasn't dipped below 800 since June 5.
The number of patients in ICU beds hit a new record of 583 yesterday.
As Arizona continued to emerge of a new national hot spot, masks moved into the spotlight last week. If you're out in public in Pima County, you're now expected to wear masks or face coverings.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 along party lines to require face masks on Friday, June 19.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Friday to mandate that face coverings be worn in public under certain circumstances, effective immediately.
The new ordinance comes as COVID-19 infection numbers have skyrocketed in Arizona over the past two weeks.
It states that every person not exempted by the ordinance must wear a face covering that “completely and snuggly covers the person’s nose and mouth” when they are in a public place and cannot easily maintain six feet of distance from other people.
Establishments that are open to the public must provide face coverings to their employees, and they may refuse to allow a person not exempt from the measure to enter if they cannot maintain a physical distance from others.
Enforcement of the ordinance will be focused on education and promotion of best practices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At the board’s emergency meeting Friday, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said criminal penalties will not be imposed on violators of the ordinance, and the measure will be enforced by the county’s health agency, not law enforcement.
The ordinance does not apply to children under the age of 5; people who cannot medically tolerate wearing a mask; people who are hearing impaired or communicating with someone who is hearing impaired; places and locations of exercise; people who would be put at risk for wearing a mask based on their job; people who are obtaining a service related to the nose, face or head; people who are eating or drinking at a restaurant and are maintaining six feet of distance from other groups; and people who are engaging in outdoor work, recreation or exercise and maintaining six feet of physical distance.
The vote comes as the county is on target to have another record-setting week of new cases, with 1,130 new COVID-19 infections, according to Huckelberry. He cited scientific papers that conclude the use of cloth masks can significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Deputy County Administrator Dr. Francisco Garcia said if Pima County can get 50 to 80 percent of the population to wear a face mask in public, he expects new infections and deaths from COVID-19 to decrease significantly.
Tags: COVID19 , Coronavirus , Face Mask , Pima County Board of Supervisors , Mandatory Mask , City of Tucson , Governor Doug Ducey , Image
Friday, June 19, 2020
- The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona jumped over 46,000 as of Friday, June 19, after the state reported 3,246 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- Fire crews enjoyed calmer winds yesterday, which allowed for more air support and time to bolster fire lines around threatened communities.
- Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
- Experts can cite any number of historical and logistical reasons why Native Americans have relatively low response rates to the Census, but Arbin Mitchell points to a very new, and very specific challenge this year – COVID-19.
- People are passionate about their fur-babies. Big or small, furry or slimy, silent or loud, people love animals and see them as part of their families. Unfortunately, not all creatures get to share in the love and get left behind, forgotten about, or worse.
- Democratic senators have called for the Trump administration to investigate anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim statements made by recent appointees to the U.S. Agency for International Development, urging the organization to do more as its leaders grapple with internal strife over their approach to issues of racism and inclusion.
- Tucson Mayor Regina Romero celebrated Juneteenth today by hanging a massive Black Lives Matter banner from the top of City Hall.
- The musical magic in Oro Valley isn’t calling it quits anytime soon, so pack your camping chairs and head on over to The Gaslight Music Hall for a night of live tunes, laughter and delicious pizza.
- President Donald Trump vowed this morning to pursue his effort to strip legal protections to remain in the United States from undocumented youth who were brought to the country by their parents. He somehow sees this as taking care of them.
“People need to understand we were just out in the field for three days, from March 15 to March 18, and we only managed to drop off just a little over 3,000 questionnaires in those three days,” before field operations on the Navajo Nation were shut down by the virus, Mitchell said.
Mitchell, whose title is tribal partnership specialist and area Census office manager, said field operations started up again last week. But enumerators have their work cut out for them: While the national response rate was 61.5% as of Thursday and the response rate for Arizona was 58.1%, just 1.5% of Navajo Nation residents had returned their forms, according to the Census Bureau.
And the Navajo are not alone. Most tribes in Arizona are well below the state average, with the highest response coming from the Ak-Chin Indian Community, which had a 52% response rate. The Navajo rate was just the third-lowest, with just 1% of Hopi returning forms and no census response from the Havasupai Tribe.
Even the Ak-Chin have felt the effects of COVID-19 on their census efforts.
Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable.
The state officials say that these “preforms,” which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, don’t fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica’s observation of the company’s operations.
“It wasn’t even clean, let alone sterile,” said Teresa Green, a retired science teacher who worked at Fillakit’s makeshift warehouse outside of Houston for two weeks before leaving out of frustration.
