Monday, June 22, 2020
“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.
The Bighorn Fire continued its spread northeast across the Catalina Mountains over the weekend, reducing its containment levels by more than half. The wildfire, which started from a lightning storm on June 5, had burned more than 58,000 acres as of Monday, June 22.
This weekend also saw the fire spread down the southern Catalinas toward foothills' neighborhoods, resulting in a large amount of smoke. Evacuation orders remain in place for areas like Mount Lemmon and Summerhaven, as well as the southern areas of Oracle. In addition, areas of Catalina, Oracle, and the Catalina Foothills have a “set” order and should be prepared to evacuate if ordered.
On Friday, June 19, the Bighorn Fire was at 40 percent containment. However, the fire has rapidly spread through the Oracle Ridge and Peppersauce areas. The largest change occurred on June 17, when strong winds fanned the flames across the mountain ridges, burning more than 12,000 acres. Before June 17, the most destructive day burned less than 3,700 acres. Since June 17, every day has seen more than 5,500 acres burned.
The gusty weather not only accelerated the fire’s progression but impeded aerial support for the fire crews. Luckily, so far no structures have been burned in Summerhaven.
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.
Most of the president’s top aides — and even some of his Cabinet secretaries — were blindsided.
Just 11 days earlier, Trump had sent an ultimatum threatening to withdraw from the WHO if reforms were not enacted in 30 days. Some senior officials hoped that he was bluffing or would change his mind about a decision that could hobble efforts to fight dangerous diseases.
Trump’s foreign policy choices are at the center of a forthcoming book by former national security adviser John Bolton, who argues that many of the president’s erratic actions are aimed at boosting his re-election chances.
But while Bolton’s book focuses on revelations about Trump’s past dealings with Turkey, Ukraine and China’s leader Xi Jinping, officials interviewed by ProPublica said the less explored WHO decision may have a more lasting impact.
ProPublica has interviewed senior officials at five federal agencies to understand the repercussions and the behind-the-scenes efforts to contain the damage of a decision in which they had little input.
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.
“Tucson stands in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters across the country in fighting the systemic racism that pervades our society at all levels,” Romero said in a prepared statement. “We are here to support, listen, and learn from the Black Lives Matter movement and our community so that we can better effect change and work for meaningful reform that closes racial, economic and social inequities.”
“Now, all Tucsonans as well as visitors driving along Interstate 10 will see loud and clear where Tucson stands in this historic moment," Romero added. "My thanks to the Gloo Factory, SKYTEK Building Services, and City of Tucson Facilities and Communications Maintenance for making this happen.”
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.
The letter by seven senators made oblique reference to nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations calling for racial justice, saying that it is “important that employees hear from their leadership at the USAID an unequivocal commitment to addressing institutional prejudices.”
This week, USAID officials held a webinar titled “Let’s Get Uncomfortable — A Real Talk on Bias and Race” for staff, which the agency billed as a “courageous conversation around bias and racial injustice,” according to an internal notice seen by ProPublica. But comments by employees made about the session and shared with ProPublica expressed palpable frustration with the agency’s leadership and noted that the senior-most official at the webinar left early.
“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.
