The number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 202,000 as of Tuesday, Sept. 1, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 21,286 of the state’s 202,342 confirmed cases.

A total of 5,044 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 576 deaths in Pima County, according to the Sept. 1 report.

The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline. ADHS reported that as of Aug. 31, 729 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the lowest that number has been since May 10, when 717 COVID patients were hospitalized. That number peaked at 3,517 on July 13.

A total of 832 people visited ERs on Aug. 31 with COVID symptoms, the lowest that number has been since June 7, when 815 people visited ERs with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7 and has bounced between 900 and 1,100 for most of August.

A total of 253 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Aug. 31, the lowest that number has been since April 9, when 248 people were in ICU. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

In Pima County, the week-by-week counting of cases peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,398 cases, according to an Aug. 26 report from the Pima County Health Department. Those numbers have dropped with Pima County requiring the wearing of masks in public but they have bumped upward recent weeks, with 804 cases in the week ending Aug. 8 and 930 cases in the week ending Aug. 15. (Not all recent cases may have been reported.)

Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 35 for the week ending Aug. 8 and 15 for the week ending Aug. 15.

Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 247 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 15, 63 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals.

Ducey: Get a Flu Shot

Gov. Doug Ducey and public health experts are asking Arizonans to get a flu shot to help keep hospital capacity low and available for those with COVID.

It's the nightmare scenario: The upcoming flu season colliding with a second wave of COVID-19 as children return to school and adults experience stay-at-home fatigue and start socializing again.

So Gov. Doug Ducey and public health experts are asking you to roll up your sleeve and get a flu shot to help keep hospital capacity low and available for those with COVID.

The governor said the Arizona Department of Health Services will be implementing an aggressive plan of action during this flu season by distributing the vaccination for free to all Arizonans through doctor’s offices, pharmacies, local health departments and community healthcare centers statewide.

“We don’t want cost to be something that gets in the way of this,” Gov. Ducey said during Monday’s press conference. “If you are uninsured or underinsured we want you to get a flu shot and it’s the best thing you can do to add more help to our situation in Arizona.”

Gov. Ducey said the overlap with COVID produces greater challenges than a typical flu season and preventing the flu is more important than ever. More than 4,000 people were hospitalized with flu symptoms in Arizona last year and roughly 700 people die from the illness each year, according to the governor.

The state will reimburse Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System providers offering free flu shots to AHCCCS members, while giving AHCCCS members a $10 gift card for their troubles after they've been vaccinated, said Gov. Ducey. The governor announced he is also allowing certified pharmacists the ability to administer the vaccine to AHCCCS-enrolled children.

“These actions have led to a 50 percent increase of flu shot administration rates in other states,” Gov. Ducey said. “We’re confident they’ll make a big difference in Arizona as well.”

Certain COVID-19 testing sites will also offer flu shots to those getting tested for coronavirus in starting in September, said Gov. Ducey. The Arizona Department of Health Services will expand online resources to help the public find free vaccine distribution locations as well as help businesses set up their own flu shot clinics for employees, according to the governor.

“I want to emphasize Arizona’s most important partner in this fight is you, the people of Arizona” Gov. Ducey said. “You’ve made a big difference in where we are today and you could make a huge difference in where we’ll be tomorrow going forward.”

Since 2018, Pima County’s criminal justice agencies have been working on a proposal for a new Community Bond Program wherein the county would fund a non-profit bonding agency and help bail out qualifying defendants in the Pima County jail, under certain circumstances.

The program is intended to help reduce the size of the county jail population, and help prevent defendants from being incarcerated for weeks, months or years when they have not been convicted of a crime. It would apply to defendants in both felony and misdemeanor cases.

“Individuals who are incarcerated pre-trial are mostly confined not because they were denied bail or were a flight risk or were a danger to the public, but rather because they could not muster the financial resources needed to secure their freedom,” said Public Defense Services Director Dean Brault in the proposal. “An individual’s inability to afford monetary bail is not an indicator of that individual’s guilt, an accurate predictor of the risk of danger that individual poses to others, or an indicator of whether that individual will show up for a scheduled court proceeding.”

Brault said incarcerating individuals who cannot afford money bail without meaningfully considering other alternatives is a violation of those individuals’ due process and equal protection rights under the law.

The non-profit in charge of the Community Bond Program would offer to bail out any defendant who Pretrial Services recommends be released, and their bond is $30,000 or less. This program would not be available in cases with homicide, sex or child exploitation charges or if the defendant has a hold from another jurisdiction.

This article is part of Electionland, ProPublica’s collaborative reporting project covering problems that prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots during the 2020 elections. Sign up to receive updates about our voting coverage and more each week.

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PHOENIX – When the Milwaukee Bucks declined to take the floor for Game 5 of their series with the Orlando Magic Wednesday in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, their seismic decision reverberated throughout professional sports. One by one, the NBA’s three Wednesday playoff games were postponed. Hours later, the Milwaukee Brewers also elected not to play in their Wednesday night contest with the Cincinnati Reds.

Multiple Major League Baseball teams followed their lead. The Arizona Diamondbacks did not on Wednesday, but on Thursday elected not to play.

“Today is not necessarily about not playing. It’s about creating an avenue to discuss why we aren’t playing. … It’s about making people better, making people aware,” pitcher Archie Bradley said.

WASHINGTON – Most Republicans watched President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech from their couches Thursday but Gov. Doug Ducey watched from the South Lawn of the White House.

The invitation for Ducey and his wife to be on hand for the speech is just the latest example of Ducey’s increasingly cozy relationship with the administration. Thursday’s visit was Ducey’s second trip to the White House this month and at least his third this year, while Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made repeated trips to Arizona in recent months.

“We’ve had a tremendous relationship,” Trump said during a Ducey visit earlier this month, “You’ve done a fantastic job. We’re very proud of you.”

The feeling is apparently mutual.

“Gov. Ducey is honored to be invited to the White House for this historic occasion and to support President Trump,” Ducey spokesman Patrick Ptak said Thursday. “The governor is very grateful for the leadership of President Trump and Vice President Pence, especially their support of Arizona through this pandemic.”

One analyst said it just makes sense for the governor to have a good relationship with the president.

“It’s an honor to be invited to see history … I applaud the governor for doing that,” said Jason Rose, a Republican political consultant in Arizona. “No secret that this governor has enjoyed a good working relationship with the president, and especially with the vice president.”

But another noted that Trump needs Arizona, which is widely expected to be a battleground state in this fall’s elections, and that “photo ops with the governor is one way to get on the news at night.”

It’s probably fair to say that Linda Ronstadt is the most-impressive Tucsonan ever born here. And, with his passing late Thursday evening, it’s undeniable that Lute Olson is the most-impressive Tucsonan to have lived and died here. Olson had been in failing health after suffering multiple strokes. He was 85.

There is no way to overstate what Olson did for the University of Arizona, its basketball program, the city of Tucson, and the state of Arizona. He was a towering basketball god, recognizable worldwide for his physical stature, his steely presence on the sidelines, and, most notably, for his perfectly coiffed silver hair. Through work ethic and excellence, he brought status and pride to the community and he was absolutely beloved for his efforts. In a country with several huge metropolises in which an urban sport like basketball can flourish, it’s remarkable that the three meccas of the collegiate sport are Durham, North Carolina; Lexington, Kentucky; and Tucson, Arizona.

Even more than a decade after he stepped down, when a kid in Ivory Coast or Costa Rica, Budapest or Singapore picks up a basketball, they know about Arizona. It’s a legacy well-earned and one cherished by Tucsonans.

Olson took a circuitous route to Arizona after starting his coaching career as a high-school coach in Southern California. It’s rare, but not totally unheard of, for a prep coach to make the leap to a major-college job. He started out coaching high school ball in Minnesota, the state in which he had graduated from Augsburg College. While at Augsburg, he played four years of football and basketball (going by “Luke” Olson). His senior year, he even played a season of baseball and was named the school’s athlete of the year.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 200,000 as of Friday, Aug. 28, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Pima County had seen 21,072 of the state’s 200,658 confirmed cases.

With 49 new deaths reported today, a total of 4,978 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, according to the Aug. 28 report.

The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline. ADHS reported that as of Aug. 27, 809 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the lowest that number has been since May 22, when 784 people were hospitalized. That number peaked at 3,517 on July 13.

A total of 922 people visited ERs on Aug. 27 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7 and has bounced between 900 and 1,100 for most of August.

A total of 272 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Aug. 27. That number has been cut in half since the beginning of August. The number in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.

In Pima County, the week-by-week counting of cases peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,398 cases, according to an Aug. 26 report from the Pima County Health Department. Those numbers have dropped with Pima County requiring the wearing of masks in public but they have bumped upward recent weeks, with 804 cases in the week ending Aug. 8 and 930 cases in the week ending Aug. 15. (Not all recent cases may have been reported.)

Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 to 35 for the week ending Aug. 8 and 15 for the week ending Aug. 15.

Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 247 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 15, 63 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals.

State hits benchmark allowing shuttered biz to reopen

Arizona reached certain benchmarks allowing for the reopening of Indoor gyms, movie theaters, bars serving food, water parks and tubing operations in Pima and Maricopa counties.

State metrics reached the “moderate” COVID-19 transmission category yesterday.

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New York is allowing residents from five states—including Arizona— to visit the Tri-State region without needing to quarantine for 14 days after arriving.

Alaska, Deleware, Montana and Maryland were also taken off New York's COVID-19 travel advisory by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo last Tuesday. Guam, however, was added to the list.

"New York State is moving forward in the face of a continuing crisis throughout the nation and around the world," Cuomo said. 'We've gone from one of the nation's worst infection rates to one of its best and have an infection rate below one percent for the 11th straight day, but that's no excuse for getting complacent as we add two more states to our travel advisory."

Under the advisory, travelers from areas with a positive COVID test rate above 10 percent of 100,000 people over a seven-day average must submit a form with their travel information and quarantine for two-weeks upon arrival or face a $2,000 fine. While bordering states New Jersey and Connecticut have the same travel restrictions in place, they do not have the stiff monetary penalty.

The advisory applies those who travel by plane, bus, train or boat. The restrictions do not apply for those traveling through the Tri-State region for business reasons.

Gov. Cuomo first implemented the travel advisory restrictions to New York on June 25. 


  

WASHINGTON – Lezmond Mitchell on Wednesday became the first Native American in modern history to be executed by the federal government over the objections of a tribal government for a crime committed between Native Americans on tribal land.

Mitchell, a Navajo convicted of the 2001 murders of a Navajo woman and her granddaughter, was pronounced dead at 6:29 p.m. in the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, the Justice Department said. The execution started at 6 p.m. after last-minute appeals to the courts and the White House failed.

The execution had been strenuously opposed by the Navajo Nation, which normally must allow an execution of a tribal member. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer said in a statement Wednesday that, “Our collective voice was ignored.”

“We don’t expect federal officials to understand our strongly held traditions of clan relationship, keeping harmony in our communities, and holding life sacred,” their statement said. “What we do expect, no, what we demand, is respect for our People, for our Tribal Nation, and we will not be pushed aside any longer.”

Mitchell’s attorneys called the execution another chapter in the federal government’s “long history of injustices against Native American people.”