Friday, November 27, 2020
PHOENIX – As cases of COVID-19 continue to surge in Arizona and the rest of the nation, the state’s three public universities are wrangling their approaches to the pandemic in similar but separate ways.
Arizona State University developed a saliva-based test and aims to monitor the spread through frequent mass testing.
The University of Arizona, unlike its counterparts, invested in a wastewater test to monitor the spread in highly populated places on campus and suggested a schoolwide shelter-in-place initiative.
Northern Arizona University, the smallest of the three, has changed the least. It adopted ASU’s saliva test and shares UArizona’s system for contact tracing, but it has been the most lenient with in-person education, offering classes with fewer than 45 students.
As the end of the semester nears, holiday travel ramps up and the pandemic reaches a critical juncture, college campuses and their thousands of students are being further scrutinized.
All three Arizona universities will end all in-person classes after the Thanksgiving holiday and recommended students and faculty get tested before any holiday travel and before they return in the spring.
As of Tuesday, Nov. 24, the Arizona Department of Health reported 4,544 new cases with a percent positive rate of 9.9%. In Maricopa County, which includes four of ASU’s campuses, the positivity rate exceeded the state average by nearly 1%.
Nationally, there have been more than 12 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 1 million cases in the past seven days alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Johns Hopkins University reports a national seven-day percent positive rate of 9.6%.
“They’re using their strengths,” Will Humble, executive director for the Arizona Public Health Association, said of the slight differences in approaches among Arizona campuses. “But in the end it will be really interesting to see (when) we can look back at the three universities and compare their outcomes and we’ll be able to tell which approaches were most effective.”
Humble said it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, but he praised each university for acting fast.
Six days after President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture notified food safety groups that it was proposing a regulatory change to speed up chicken factory processing lines, a change that would allow companies to sell more birds. An earlier USDA effort had broken down on concerns that it could lead to more worker injuries and make it harder to stop germs like salmonella.
Ordinarily, a change like this would take about two years to go through the cumbersome legal process of making new federal regulations. But the timing has alarmed food and worker safety advocates, who suspect the Trump administration wants to rush through this rule in its waning days.
Even as Trump and his allies officially refuse to concede the Nov. 3 election, the White House and federal agencies are hurrying to finish dozens of regulatory changes before Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. The rules range from long-simmering administration priorities to last-minute scrambles and affect everything from creature comforts like showerheads and clothes washers to life-or-death issues like federal executions and international refugees. They impact everyone from the most powerful, such as oil drillers, drugmakers and tech startups, to the most vulnerable, such as families on food stamps, transgender people in homeless shelters, migrant workers and endangered species. ProPublica is tracking those regulations as they move through the rule-making process.
Every administration does some version of last-minute rule-making, known as midnight regulations, especially with a change in parties. It’s too soon to say how the Trump administration’s tally will stack up against predecessors. But these final weeks are solidifying conservative policy objectives that will make it harder for the Biden administration to advance its own agenda, according to people who track rules developed by federal agencies.
“The bottom line is the Trump administration is trying to get things published in the Federal Register, leaving the next administration to sort out the mess,” said Matthew Kent, who tracks regulatory policy for left-leaning advocacy group Public Citizen. “There are some real roadblocks to Biden being able to wave a magic wand on these.”
In some instances, the Trump administration is using shortcuts to get more rules across the finish line, such as taking less time to accept and review public feedback. It’s a risky move. On the one hand, officials want to finalize rules so that the next administration won’t be able to change them without going through the process all over again. On the other, slapdash rules may contain errors, making them more vulnerable to getting struck down in court.
The Trump administration is on pace to finalize 36 major rules in its final three months, similar to the 35 to 40 notched by the previous four presidents, according to Daniel Perez, a policy analyst at the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. In 2017, Republican lawmakers struck down more than a dozen Obama-era rules using a fast-track mechanism called the Congressional Review Act. That weapon may be less available for Democrats to overturn Trump’s midnight regulations if Republicans keep control of the Senate, which will be determined by two Georgia runoffs. Still, a few GOP defections could be enough to kill a rule with a simple majority.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
WASHINGTON – The recent surge in COVID-19 cases could push hospital staff and hospital bed capacity to the limit in coming weeks, particularly if people are not careful over Thanksgiving, an Arizona hospital official said Tuesday.
Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for Banner Health, said its projections show the system will be using 125% of its licensed hospital beds by Dec. 4 as it grapples with the usual winter rise in patients and the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases. She compared this holiday weekend to Memorial Day weekend, when unrestricted gatherings were followed by a sharp spike in coronavirus cases.
“If you reflect back in May, you know that Memorial Day weekend was a significant catalyst that caused continued exponential growth of our COVID pandemic here in the state of Arizona,” Bessel said in a press conference Tuesday.
Unlike May, however, when Arizona was one of the few states facing a COVID-19 surge, the current outbreak is widespread. That means hospitals in the state will be hard-pressed to find relief workers from other states, Bessel said, even if they can work around the shortage of beds.
“We have been accumulating pharmaceutical supplies, beds and ventilators since the surge in the summer and we believe that we are prepared,” she said. “What we will have a shortage of will be staff.”
A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Health Services said the agency is not able to comment on projections from Banner or any other external organization. But Holly Poynter said that while “hospital ICU bed availability has decreased over the past few weeks, there is still adequate capacity in Arizona’s hospitals.”
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
WASHINGTON – Thanksgiving travel is expected to be down sharply this year because of COVID-19, but as many as 50 million Americans are still expected to travel this week despite pleas from health experts to stay home.
And those people who do travel could run into a bewildering array of restrictions when they reach their destinations, experts say.
“It is important to know the risks involved and ways to keep yourself and others safe,” the AAA said in its annual Thanksgiving travel outlook. “In addition to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance, travelers should also be aware of local and state travel restrictions, including testing requirements and quarantine orders.”
The AAA forecast predicts an overall decline of at least 10% in holiday travelers, from 55 million last year to just over 50 million this year.
But that’s still a lot of people and officials are making changes to accommodate safe travel in a time of COVID-19.
“We have encouraged our business partners to establish touchless applications where possible and we encourage travelers to use mobile boarding passes wherever possible,” said Greg Roybal, a spokesman for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Sky Harbor announced a partnership Monday with XpresSpa Group Inc., a health and wellness company, that has set up a COVID-19 testing facility in a former urgent care clinic in Terminal 4. The six testing rooms should be able to handle more than 400 travelers per day.
Monday, November 23, 2020
SAN CLEMENTE, California – High school athletes can’t play competitively this fall semester due to California’s pandemic restrictions, so some elite players are traveling to Arizona and other states to maintain their skills and continue developing a scouting profile for colleges.
With some high school sports indefinitely on hold, California athletes on club or travel teams are willing to travel to states with fewer restrictions, just for the chance to compete. Although physically distanced conditioning has been allowed since the start of school, local California districts have set their own timetables.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a delay of the release of statewide guidance on the resumption of school sports, citing an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, the Los Angeles Times reported. This makes it much tougher on sports families to keep their kids involved competitively, including the Luce family, with three boys all involved in sports.
“It’s definitely more coordinating and a lot more work,” said their mother, Julie Luce. “Getting out there is not easy.”
Although it has been difficult, she can’t deny her eldest son, Ryan, his aspirations of becoming a professional baseball player. In light of the high school sports postponement, Ryan’s family decided to hold the 14-year-old back from his freshman year to remain in eighth grade: he joined a sports academy middle school in San Clemente called the Togethership.
Luce and husband Anthony are providing Ryan the opportunity to play competitive baseball out-of-state. After resuming workouts in late July, Ryan and his family drove to Phoenix in September for his first interstate tournament with The Togethership.
Financial aid from last spring's federal CARES Act allowed Neighborhood Outreach Access to Health and other community health centers to retain employees amid declining patient visits and other threats to funding streams.
The financial hit is estimated to be at least $2.9 billion nationwide, according to a study from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
In addition to providing standard health services, these clinics have been on the front lines of COVID-19 testing efforts in underserved urban and rural communities.
In Arizona, 23 community health centers operate 176 sites throughout the state. Tara McCollum of the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers said most centers in Arizona experienced drops of 35% to 80% for in-person patient visits.
“Even the sliding fee scale wasn’t enough to bring people in,” she said, referring to discounts offered to uninsured patients. With the sliding scale, the less money a patient earns, the lower the cost.
Such discounts are made possible with financial assistance from the Community Health Center Fund, a federal program created through the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Congress renewed funding for the program last year at $5.6 billion, but that money is set to expire later this year.
With the ACA now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, advocates worry the health center fund could be wiped out if the court decides to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON – Coconino County Supervisor Art Babbott urged senators last week to pass a bill that would let limbs and trees left over from forest maintenance be burned for renewable energy.
Babbott, testifying before a Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee, said the lack of a market for forest waste has been a bottleneck choking efforts to clear national forests of undergrowth and halt the growth of catastrophic wildfires.
“The rules have changed, we can’t use the same strategies that used to work because they don’t work anymore,” said Babbott, who punctuated his remarks by noting that he had received notice during his testimony of another wildfire breaking out in the county.
The hearing comes during a year in which Arizona has seen a sharp increase in wildfires, with 2,375 blazes so far that have burned more than 955,000 acres so far this year, said Tiffany Davila, a spokeswoman with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
And that pales in comparison to states like California, where 9,279 fires have burned almost 4.2 million acres and led to 31 deaths this year, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Friday, November 20, 2020
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero joined three other Arizona mayors on Friday to discuss the surge in cases across the state and call for stricter COVID-19 mitigation actions from Gov. Doug Ducey.
Coronavirus cases are surging across the state and county, with 562 new cases reported in Pima County on Friday.
“Here in Pima County, we are seeing numbers we've seen only in the summer. Positivity rate is increasing throughout our state, and these things are very, very troubling for all of us,” Romero said. “The fact is that currently, we are heading in the wrong direction.”
Romero is calling for Ducey to implement a statewide mask mandate and a 14-day self-quarantine or a negative test for travelers entering the state.
In a media conference Wednesday, Ducey said he won’t implement a statewide mask mandate because 90% of Arizona is under local mask mandates.
“As much as I'd love the city of Tucson to be in a bubble, all it takes is one person traveling to Tucson to visit family during the holidays to make a huge impact in terms of spread here in the city of Tucson,” Romero said. “That's why it's so important that we have a statewide mandate for masks because we should all be holding hands in this. This should not be a political issue, this should be an issue that we hold hands that we work together and that we defeat.”
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Flagstaff Mayor Coral Evans and Tolleson Mayor Anna Tovar joined Romero in calling for a mask mandate statewide.
The Arizona Department of Health Services issued an emergency measure that masks be worn on all school premises, but the mayors are calling for further action.
“There are very significant portions of rural Arizona that do not have a mask requirement. We are certainly seeing a surge in cases in rural Arizona,” Gallego said. “I think it would send an important message to rural Arizona, the governor has extended mask requirements for our students, their parents and grandparents deserve the same.”
If a statewide mask mandate is implemented, Romero says the Pima County Health Department would be responsible for enforcing it.
“[Tucson Police Department] doesn't go into a business and take it upon themselves to enforce the mask mandate,” Romero said. “What we're doing is coordinating and cooperating with Pima County Health Department. Pima County Health Department then has the ability to call that restaurant or bar and take further action.”
At the onset of the pandemic, the group of mayors said Ducey’s staff held daily coronavirus briefings, which then turned into biweekly briefings. The updates have since ceased altogether.
“In regards to communication, I think that's something that is very much needed in regards to all 91 cities and 15 counties throughout the state of Arizona. We used to have daily updates at the beginning of COVID . . . and then suddenly those were terminated,” Tovar said. “One of my biggest frustrations is not having that communication to update us to stay proactive in trying to come up with solutions, hearing from mayors all across Arizona.”
In addition to communication, some of the mayors expressed concerns about a lack of funding to address the pandemic in their jurisdictions.
Evans says the state received $1.86 billion in federal CARES Act funding, but cities and towns that were less than 500,000 in population did not receive a direct allocation.
“Instead, the monies went to the governor's office, and those monies were then dispersed with regulations, and also not fully dispersed . . . only $441 million was actually dispersed to the smaller cities and towns,” Evans said. “One of the things that we could use is for the rest of the money that is currently with the governor's office to be dispersed to the smaller cities and towns without restrictions, that way we can utilize that money to take care of the issues that we see here at a local level.”
Romero says Tucson received $95 million in CARES Act funding, and that “the city of Tucson Mayor and Council have put millions of dollars for workers and families for utility and rent assistance, for small business assistance, nonprofit assistance for arts and culture entertainment venues.”
Tucson's mayor says Ducey’s executive order in April implementing his “stay home, stay healthy, stay connected” policy prevented local municipalities from creating their own mitigation strategies.
“Back in the summer, when cases were spiking as they are now, [Ducey] untied the hands of mayors and health departments across Arizona, but only to institute a face mask mandate. All other mitigation strategies are off the table for mayors across Arizona, because of their prevention from Governor Ducey,” Romero said. “Here in Pima County, we just saw 660 cases reported Thursday, more than 4,400 cases across the state. If this is not an emergency to get our governor to institute additional mitigation strategies and in a mandatory face-covering across the state, I really don't know what is.”
Romero also expressed concerns about the disproportionate amount of minorities affected by COVID-19.
“With this pandemic, we have seen the ills of our society highlighted. We are seeing here in Arizona, that our indigenous communities, Latino communities and communities of color are much more exposed and are the numbers that we're seeing rise in exponential levels,” she said. “That is much more of a systemic issue that this country has the inability to provide health care for Americans and provide a safety net to our low-income communities and communities of color. That is the underlying issue that COVID-19 is highlighting.”
Although evidence of potentially effective COVID-19 vaccines has recently surfaced, the mayors say Arizona is in need of a united voice to actually implement them.
“We also are concerned in regards to the vaccine that is months away. We are excited about the news that is coming out of the potential releases of multiple manufacturers that have vaccines that are showing great scientific data that they are effective . . . but that message falls short here, nationwide, and also at our state level,” Tovar said. “We need a plan of action in place so that when the vaccines do come out, we have a strong unified message on how we vaccinate our communities.”
Whether Ducey takes statewide executive action for further COVID-19 mitigation, Romero said “it's up to all of us to take a personal responsibility of following public health guidelines.”
The mayors implore all Arizonans to wear a face mask, frequently sanitize and avoid large gatherings as Thanksgiving approaches.
“Masks are important. I understand they hurt your ears, mine too. But wearing a mask is more comfortable than wearing a ventilator,” Gallego said. “Thousands of Arizonans have lost their lives, there will be empty seats at Thanksgiving. We can take steps to make sure that we stop this growth and save lives.”
Romero echoed the same message.
“I know this pandemic has been frustrating, it has been exhausting, but we need to maintain our resolve for a little bit longer. I know this will be especially hard during Thanksgiving….We have to stay the course, we need to wear a mask, we must avoid gatherings, and all of these actions will save lives,” she said.
“Here in Arizona, we’ve lost 6,600 lives. 6,600 lives that are not going to join their families for Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other holidays. 6,600 lives that we are not going to recover. And so we are asking for clear statewide action and leadership by Governor Ducey.”
Districts report their coronavirus cases to the Pima County Health Department, which provides guidance to schools based on metrics in its COVID-19 progress report. However, these are merely guidelines, and schools aren’t necessarily obliged to follow them.
The health department recommends each school site designate a team to implement a COVID-19 mitigation plan, who are then connected to a liaison at the department.
In a reference guide for school reopenings, the health department says to reopen, schools should be ready “to consult with the local health authorities if there are cases in the facility.”
As many districts reopen for hybrid learning, they’re reporting COVID-19 cases among students and staff causing groups of potential contacts to quarantine.
Sunnyside Unified and Marana Unified have created dashboards listing their positive cases. Public information officials from the Amphitheater Unified District and Flowing Wells Unified School District have been responsive in providing their positive case numbers to the press.
However, Tucson’s largest school district is not revealing their case counts.
Although Tucson Unified School District doesn’t plan to implement hybrid learning until January, is has on-campus learning spaces available to some students.
Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases climbed to nearly 300,000 as of Friday, Nov. 20, with 4,471 new cases, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County reported 562 new cases today bringing its total to 34,985 of the state’s 291,696 confirmed cases.
With 43 new deaths reported today, it increases to 6,427 the number of Arizonans who have died after contracting COVID-19, including 673 deaths in Pima County, according to the Nov. 20 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide continues to climb as the virus has begun to spread more rapidly. ADHS reported that as of Nov. 18, 1,835 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the highest that number has been since Aug. 8. That number peaked with 3,517 hospitalized COVID patients on July 13; it hit a subsequent low of 468 on Sept. 27.
A total of 1,490 people visited emergency rooms on Nov. 19 with COVID symptoms, the highest that number has been since July 171. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28.
A total of 431 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Nov. 19. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13 and hit a subsequent low of 114 on Sept. 22.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,452 cases, according to a Nov. 12 report from the Pima County Health Department. (Numbers in this report are subject to revision.)
Pima County is seeing a steady rise in cases in recent weeks. For the week ending Oct. 17, 547 cases were reported; for the week ending Oct. 24, 914 cases were reported; for the week ending Oct. 31, 1,304 cases were reported; and for the week ending Nov. 7, 1,948 cases were reported.
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry noted that the county had seen 4,620 cases in the first 17 days in November.
“For the first 17 days in July, the worst month of COVID-19 case increases to date, there were 5,057 cases,” Huckleberry said in a Nov. 17 memo. “Therefore, we are on pace to exceed the total number of monthly COVID-19 infections in our previous worst month, July.”
COVID-related deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 54 in the week ending July 4 but are on the rise. There were three deaths in the week ending Oct 10, one in week ending Oct. 17, five in the week ending Oct. 24 and nine in the week ending Oct. 31.
Hospitalization admission peaked the week ending July 18 with 221 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals, but those numbers have been on the rise in recent weeks. In the week ending Oct. 17, 35 people were admitted; in the week ending Oct. 24, 41 people were admitted; in the week ending Oct. 31, 53 people were admitted; and in the week ending Nov. 7, 61 people were admitted.
Ducey, Christ: State coronavirus cases showing 'concerning increase'
In the first media conference from the governor’s office in two weeks, Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ provided a COVID-19 update today as the pervasiveness of the virus grows daily.
Christ said throughout the state there’s been a “concerning increase” in coronavirus cases, percent positivity and COVID-19 patients in ICU and inpatient hospital beds.
According to Christ, each of Arizona’s 15 counties has a COVID-19 case rate above 100 per 100,000 people, which also indicates a substantial spread of the virus.
COVID-19-like illnesses are also increasing visits to emergency rooms and hospitals, Christ said.
The public health director implored mask wearing for all Arizonans “in every setting.”
Banner Health reinstates no visitor policy as COVID surges
As Arizona continues on track for its worst month of COVID spread, Banner Health reinstated its no-visitor policy at all Banner – University Medicine locations in Tucson, effective 6 p.m. today. According to Banner, this visitor ban to reduce COVID spread includes outpatient and ambulatory locations, such as clinics, urgent care locations, imaging centers, surgery centers and occupational health services locations.
There are four exceptions to the visitor restrictions:
- Pediatric patients (under the age of 18) may have one guardian or support individual with them.
- Laboring mothers may have one support person with them.
- Persons with disabilities who, due to the specifics of the disability, require assistance from someone in order to effectively participate in the healthcare process will be allowed to designate a support person to accompany them while in any Banner facility.
- End of life visitations will be accommodated.
Federal prison is a “hot spot” for COVID cases
However, the memo says there are specific "hot spots" contributing to the surge in cases, including a case outbreak at the federal prison at 8901 S. Wilmot Road. Nearly 500 infections were found in a facility with 1,600 detainees and 600 employees.
“The initial cases were identified quickly, and the institution implemented an aggressive program of inmate testing, case identification, and isolation and quarantine to mitigate the risk of spread,” Huckelberry said in the memo.
On-site medical services for inmates are “limited to outpatient acute care” from a team of four nurse practitioners or mid-level providers, 12 supporting nursing and paramedics and a medical director from inside the facility, according to the memo.
About 24 detainees had to leave the prison facility for hospital care, and the memo says “even fewer required inpatient care at local hospitals, principally TMC.”
Get tested: Pima County opening new sites alongside existing spots for free COVID testing
New drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites are opening at three Pima Community College locations, the county health department announced in a press release Friday.
The Pima County Health Department, Pima Community College and Arizona State University have partnered to create three new testing sites in an extension of the current ASU testing site at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center.
At the drive-thru sites, COVID-19 testing will be offered through spit samples instead of nasal canal swabs.
Each site will conduct testing from 9 a.m. to noon, and registration is required in advance. Only patients 5 years or older can be tested.
“As cases rise, we are eager to increase available testing for the people of Pima County,” Pima County Public Health Director Theresa Cullen said in the press release. “If you know or suspect you have been exposed to COVID-19, we encourage you to get tested.”
Here are the three drive-thru locations that will be offering COVID-19 testing:
Pima Community College West Campus
- 2202 W. Anklam Road
- Mondays, except national holidays and Dec. 28
- Testing started: Monday, Nov. 16, 2020
Pima Community College Desert Vista Campus
- 5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz
- Wednesdays, except national holidays and Dec. 30
- Testing starts: Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020
Pima Community College East Campus
- 8181 E. Irvington Road
- Fridays, except national holidays.
- Testing starts: Friday, Dec. 4, 2020
The new sites will join the county’s other four free testing centers around town.
You’ll have a nasal swab test at the Kino Event Center (2805 E. Ajo Way) the Udall Center (7200 E. Tanque Verde Road) and downtown (88 E. Broadway). 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 pima.gov/covid19testing.
The University of Arizona’s antibody testing has been opened to all Arizonans as the state attempts to get a handle on how many people have been exposed to COVID-19 but were asymptomatic or otherwise did not get a test while they were ill.
To sign up for testing, visit https://covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu/home.
