Monday, March 8, 2021
With 783 new cases reported today, the total number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 827,000 as of Monday, March 8, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which reported 103 new cases today, has seen 110,590 of the state’s 827,237 confirmed cases.
A total of 16,328 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID-19, including 2,261 deaths in Pima County, according to the March 8 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide dipped below 1,000 this weekend for the first time since November. A total of 919 coronavirus patients were in the hospital as of March 7. That’s roughly 18% of the number hospitalized at the peak of the winter surge, which reached 5,082 on Jan. 11. The summer peak was 3,517, which was set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent lowest number of hospitalized COVID patients was 468, set on Sept. 27, 2020.
A total of 990 people visited emergency rooms on March 7 with COVID symptoms. That number is roughly 42% of the record high of 2,341 set on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. That number had peaked during the summer wave at 2,008 on July 7, 2020; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28, 2020.
A total of 256 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on March 7, which is roughly 22% of the record 1,183 ICU patients set on Jan. 11. The summer’s record number of patients in ICU beds was 970, set on July 13, 2020. The subsequent low was 114 on Sept. 22, 2020.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misquoted Tempe Elementary School District spokesperson Brittany Franklin, administrators there were not discussing whether to make summer school mandatory.
PHOENIX – Before the pandemic, second-grader Melody Wiseley loved going to school. But for the past year, her life has consisted of Zoom classes and social distancing. The mundane, taken-for-granted moments she once shared with friends in the lunchroom and on the playground are cherished memories.
Her grandmother, Heidi Aranda, who is the senior director of curriculum development for Tucson Unified School District, noticed her granddaughter’s struggles over the past year. One likely remedy is summer school, which is not mandatory in Arizona, but districts are offering more classes this year to help students who struggled remotely catch up.
“She has struggled a bit with the online instruction,” Aranda said of Melody. “She is very social and she interacts with people all the time, so this has been hard for her.”
She said the learning experience in her home is different from most because her daughter – Jacqueline Aranda, who teaches in Tucson Unified – and her granddaughter live with her. But despite the teacher powerhouse, it can still be difficult to keep Melody on track.
“It’s hard because there are times where there is support at home and there’s times where there isn’t support at home,” Heidi Aranda said.
Melody isn’t the only student who struggles with remote learning.
Friday, March 5, 2021
Local students, ages 5-19, are being asked to submit original poetry, photography or visual art focusing on water and the natural world for this year’s Living River of Words contest. The deadline to enter is April 2.
In past years, Pima County's Living River of Words program took students on a field trip to study the Santa Cruz River and its surroundings: conducting water quality tests, observing wildlife and plant interactions, while taking time for reflection and journaling. Students then would work with local artists to create entries for the contest. But because of the COVID pandemic, learning experiences will be virtual this year.
Finalists and grand prize winners will have their poetry and artwork included in the annual exhibit and published in the exhibit booklet. Finalists’ artwork will also be submitted to the International River of Words contest.
For more information about the LROW program please visit www.pima.gov/RiverOfWords or contact the Pima County NRPR Environmental Education group at (520) 724-5375 or [email protected].
Learning activities will include watersheds and wetland habitats, and the practices of poetry, photography and visual arts. The schedule of upcoming workshops is available on the website and includes:
- Visual Art Workshop, ages 7-10: Wednesday, March 17, 10 a.m. – noon
- Visual Art Workshop, ages 11-14: Wednesday, March 17, 1 – 3 p.m.
- Poetry Workshop, ages 7-10: Thursday, March 18, 10 a.m. – noon
- Poetry Workshop, ages 11-14: Thursday, March 18, 1 – 3 p.m.
- Photography Workshop, ages 9-14: Saturday, March 27, 2 – 3 p.m.
- Multimedia Workshop, ages 15-19: Saturday, March 27, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Tucson Unified School District reaffirmed their plan Thursday to open schools the week of March 22, which is in compliance with Gov. Doug Ducey’s Executive Order released Wednesday, said TUSD Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo.
Trujillo said they were ahead of the order, which has put them in a good spot to safely return students, teachers and staff to campus.
TUSD schools will have to reopen to in-person learning two days earlier than planned, on March 22 instead of March 24.
While 1 out 5 parents still need to choose their child’s learning program, more than 43% percent chose remote learning, which Trujillo said is in compliance with the executive order.
The district recently purchased $1.5 million in High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) units, which are stand-alone units that can be plugged into a wall to reduce the spread of harmful particles in the air. On Wednesday, they finalized the purchase of 4,000 units for every campus, said Trujillo.
Throughout the spring and early summer, they plan to retrofit older buildings with Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values (MERV) rating level 13 filters, from level 8 filters, which refers to the filter's ability to capture harmful particles in the air as part of the HVAC system, said Trujillo.
On Monday, the district began distributing more than 50,000 N95 masks. Each school will also get at least one hands-free, bottle-filling station, he said.
House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding and Senate Democratic Leader Rebecca Rios released a joint statement questioning Gov Ducey’s executive order.
“We shouldn't have to choose between public health and public schools,” the Democratic lawmakers said. “We all know that school is the best place for our students to learn, but we need to make decisions that protect our communities, children, teachers, support staff and parents.”
Marana School District Superintendent Dan Streeter told families on Friday that the district would resume five days of in-person instruction for pre-K through eighth grades as well as MCAT students.
Marana High School and Mountain View High School will offer in-person instruction Monday through Thursday, with Fridays reserved for remote learning so that teachers will have time to work with students who prefer to remain in virtual schooling.
A free, monthlong virtual job fair will help connect Arizona job seekers with employers throughout the state.
Unmet Jobs and the Arizona Commerce Authority will provide a personalized, virtual networking experience to help those companies and workers affected by COVID-19. The event, which is free for both employers and job seekers, will take place from March 15 to April 15, 2021. Registration is open now at unmetjobs.com.
“Job hunting has never been easy and COVID-19 has made it even more difficult to find employment,” said Emily Ahrens, chief marketing officer of UNMET Jobs. “During UNMET Jobs Arizona 2021, jobseekers will have access to hundreds of employers and thousands of local job postings. Companies will have the opportunity to review resumes from candidates that have recently graduated as well as more seasoned professionals.
The platform is inclusive to all levels of experience and features internships, entry-level and mid/senior-level positions, Ahrens said. Employers may register and begin posting jobs now through March 8 in advance of the fair’s launch. Some of the companies that will be represented include Amazon, Arizona Children's Association, Quicken Loans and Mind Quest.
“Arizona’s educational institutions are producing the workforce of the future, and we’re proud to partner with UNMET Jobs to highlight our state’s impressive talent pool through this virtual event,” said Sandra Watson, Arizona Commerce Authority President & CEO. “By leveraging technology, we’re able to facilitate a greater number of meaningful connections between Arizona job seekers and job creators.”
Gov. Doug Ducey announced he is rescinding his previous executive order limiting occupancy capacity for restaurants, gyms, theaters, water parks, bowling alleys and bars with dine-in service in a new executive order signed and released Friday.
The governor’s order still keeps the mask mandate and social distancing protocols in place, but businesses can return to full occupancy “effective immediately”.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past year. Our businesses have done an excellent job at responding to this pandemic in a safe and responsible way,” Ducey said. “We will always admire the sacrifice they and their employees have made and their vigilance to protect against the virus.”
Ducey is also giving Spring Training and major league sports the green light to proceed, provided they submit a plan on how they will implement CDC and state guidelines to the Arizona Department of Health Services and it received approval.
The executive order also precludes local municipalities to implement “extreme measures” that would stop businesses from operating.
Al Foul with a compilation album after the rockabilly musician recently announced his throat cancer diagnosis.
Al Foul: A Tribute to the One and Only features 28 of Tucson’s finest troubadours, from Calexico’s Joey Burns to burlesque performer/singer Lola Torch, performing tracks spanning the musician’s multi-decade career. Its official release is Friday, March 5, through legendary bluesman Tom Walbank’s Bandcamp page.
Walbank said once his friend when public with his diagnosis, the bluesman wanted to help Foul and his family out during this time. He spent the past two weeks reaching out and collecting tracks from other Old Pueblo musicians who jumped at a chance to honor Foul.
“Now that it’s [the diagnosis] was out in the open I thought about what I could do to help,” Walbank said. “Putting together an album seemed like a no-brainer since I know all these people around town that play music.”
Gabriel Sullivan from Dust + Stone Studio and Jim Waters from Waterworks donated time to record several of the album’s tracks, said Walbank. He also received a fair number of songs recorded on iPhones and other devices.
“I realized that because it’s a pandemic, not everyone wants to go to the studio and not everyone had a home studio, so it was a little tricky,” Walbank said. “So there are some songs which are done very intimate on an iPhones and stuff like that.”
The compilation is available for $10 at tomwalbank.bandcamp.com starting Friday, March 5.
If you want to otherwise help out Al Foul through these tough times, you can contribute to his GoFundMe fundraiser.
If you're not familiar with Al Foul, Tucson Weekly's Brian Smith profiled him in 2016. A snippet:
He lives and breathes and drinks and eats the music. He's averaging three in-state gigs a week, and he lives on the profits, as he's done for years. Between the tip jar, merch/music sales and venue guarantees, he's not getting rich. In fact, he needs to save money to put new tires on the RV.
The man has proven to be a gifted songwriter and entertainer on albums such as Keep the Motor Running, Spank That Ass and The One, The Only, which have earned him followings in various places around the States and especially in France, where he's been touring annually for years. (His new, as-yet-untitled album drops later this year.) Tunes reveal a sort of autodidactic, street-ripened philosopher, just like old Goodis (the French called hime "the poet of the losers"), and a master of deceptively simple, yet funny, song narratives that offer little redemption, filled with busted-luck yarns of four-time losers, jailhouse bikers, day drunks, speed freaks, souring marriages—all things, folks and follies he's discovered on his travels, imagined or true, or bestowed upon him by his father, or wreckage he's crawled from.
Foul (born Alan Lewis Curtis) comes from a long line of blue-collar men, the kind who fought in wars, who drank hard and lived hard. His old man worked the steel mills, and when they closed up he worked as a machinist and then took care of Foul's mother, a schoolteacher stricken with multiple sclerosis at 21.
"She went from a cane to a walker to a chair to a bed to the grave in 15 years," Foul says. "Man, I had a real fear of getting MS. They say it's not hereditary but my mother's mother had it too."
A fear of heart attacks to boot. They run in the family on his dad's side. His pop had his fist one at 40, and the last one killed him at 63. ("Dad had a big gut; he ate Spam all the time.") A heart attack took his grandfather at 38.
Foul grew up in a hard, mostly Irish and Italian section in south Boston called Hyde Park. Racism rampant. His dad grew up a hard-ass "greaser" and a "rocker" who fought in the streets, "a true juvenile delinquent of the '50s, and an absolute terror when he was young because he didn't have a father. But a lot of kids didn't have fathers in the neighborhood; they lost them in the war."
The men on his dad's side of the family, old-school New England Protestants, disowned Foul's dad because he married a Polish woman.
Foul learned exactly how to react and not react by watching his father, and rebelling. Says dad was mean and brutal but had big heart, a man disquieted by contradiction, feeling trapped and overwhelmed with a sick wife and three children.
"There was not a door or wall in the house that wasn't kicked through," Foul says. "Inside the house was a cacophony of noise and arguments. My dad could verbally abuse his family like nobody. If you pissed him off he'd hit you with a belt. All the neighbors would sit outside drinking beer and laughing their asses off."
His "Archie Bunker type" dad happened to be a self-educated Malcolm X fan who read "a book a day." A gun collector too. They were “broke as church mouses” but dad always had money for new guns. His addiction.
"We never sat at a dinner table once," Foul adds. "Never once. Partly because my mother was sick. If you were tall enough to fix your food you did."
With a reminder that Thursday marked a year since the first COVID test came back positive in Pima County and that more than 110,000 people have tested positive since then, Pima County Health Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen said she is looking to the future as county officials expect to hit the goal of 300,000 vaccinations before the end of March.
But whether they can reach that goal depends on how many vaccine doses arrive in Pima County from the state. As of March 4, 283,011 vaccines were administered in Pima County and Cullen said that if the county receives enough doses, it could hit the 300,000 mark sometime next week.
The county continues to vaccinate those 65 and older and had almost half of that population vaccinated a few days ago. The state is asking Pima County to have 55% of people 65+ vaccinated with the first dose by March 9, which would depend on how many first appointments are opened up at the state POD, Cullen said.
After Banner Health officials announced they would end vaccinations at Banner North and consolidate all vaccinations at Banner South, Cullen said the consolidation of the sites was in the works but it was with the hope that the Kino Sports Complex site would be able to increase appointments. The transition was based on the supply of Moderna vaccine.
The county has received 23,000 doses of Moderna, which they have yet to allot and continue to have discussions with TMC, TCC and Banner to evaluate their needs, Cullen said.
“We hoped the supply chain would loosen up,” Cullen said. “We have every indication that it will by the end of this month.”
The county has also received 8,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which will be the only allocation for the next three to four weeks, Cullen said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be distributed to federally qualified health centers and also support the county’s pop-ups, but only in communities they had not previously vaccinated, as those who received Pfizer or Moderna will need a second shot of the same vaccine.
“We've been able to extend a hand into community and community members that we may not have touched before, that we may not have been able to develop trust with, from a community perspective,” said Cullen.
In Pima County, more than 2,200 people have died after contracting the virus; statewide, that number has topped 16,000 in Arizona.
“Everybody knows somebody,” said Cullen tearfully. “It's in their family or their grandma, or their best friend who has passed or is still suffering from the disease.”
