Tuesday, November 24, 2020
WASHINGTON – All 15 Arizona counties had submitted official election results by Monday to the secretary of state, who will certify them in the next week or sooner – ending a contentious weeks-long battle over a normally routine process.
That included GOP lawsuits challenging the election, angry rallies outside the Maricopa County Ballot Tabulation Center and even death threats against Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
But the last of the lawsuits was dismissed Friday and while the Trump campaign is still pressuring other battleground states, Arizona appears to be out of the crosshairs.
Tom Collins, executive director of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, said that fighting over the canvass is “a new development” for what is typically only a formality.
“This step in the process is not a partisan political activity, it’s really been more seen as ratification that the processes have been followed and that these are the official results,” Collins said Monday.
If certified, the results will show Democrat Joe Biden with a narrow 10,457 lead over President Donald Trump, out of almost 3.89 million votes cast. That would award Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes to Biden, who was declared president-elect weeks ago.
The results would also confirm Democrat Mark Kelly’s 78,806-vote lead over Sen. Martha McSally, R-Arizona, out of 3.35 million cast. Because he would be filling the seat of the late Sen. John McCain, which McSally has held for the last two years, Kelly could be sworn in as soon as the votes are certified.
With more than 4,500 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases closed in on 307,000 as of Tuesday, Nov. 24, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County, which r
eported 327 new cases today, has seen 36,986 of the state’s 306,868 confirmed cases.
With 51 new deaths reported yesterday, a total of 6,515 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 679 deaths in Pima County, according to the Nov. 24 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases statewide continues to climb as the virus has begun to spread more rapidly, putting stress on Arizona’s hospitals. ADHS reported that as of Nov. 23, 2,084 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state, the highest that number has been since Aug. 1. 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 1,372 people visited emergency rooms on Nov. 23 with COVID symptoms. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7; it hit a subsequent low of 653 on Sept. 28.
A total of 474 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Nov. 23, the highest that number has been since Aug. 12. 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 an Nov. 23 report from the Pima County Health Department. (Numbers in this report are subject to revision.)
Pima County is seeing a dramatic rise in cases in recent weeks. For the week ending Oct. 31, 1,348 cases were reported; for the week ending Nov. 7, 2,122 cases were reported; and for the week ending Nov. 14, 2,561 cases were reported; and for the week ending Nov. 21, 2,575 cases were reported.
Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry noted last week 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.”
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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
Some districts have chosen to revert to remote online learning after Thanksgiving break, while others have closed down classrooms and school sites as outbreaks occur.
The Pima County Health Department guides districts in their reopening process, suggesting hybrid or remote-only learning based on three key metrics: two weeks with new case rates below 100 per 100,000, two weeks of percent positivity below 7 percent and hospital visits for COVID-19 illness below 10 percent.
At first, only one of these benchmarks had to move into the “substantial spread” category for the health department to recommend schools move to remote learning, but the Arizona Department of Health Services changed this guidance in late October to say all three had to be in the substantial category to recommend schools go remote.
On Nov. 19, Pima County’s COVID-19 metrics report, which has a 12-day lag time in reporting data, showed substantial spread for COVID-19 cases over two consecutive weeks.
“Right now, our current stance is still that hybrid can work. That's been our position for a while now and remains our position,” Health Department Communications Manager Aaron Pacheco said. “However, this is changing really quickly, and if for some reason we need to change that stance, we're willing to do whatever we need to do to stop the spread, and keep it from continuing to increase.”
In its final week of in-person instruction for the fall semester, the University of Arizona is reporting slightly elevated COVID-19 case numbers as it finishes its pre-fall break testing blitz this week, UA President Robert C. Robbins shared in a news conference Monday, Nov. 23.
From Nov. 12 through Nov. 21, UA found 126 positive coronavirus cases after administering 11,504 tests for a positivity rate of 1.1%, an increase from the 0.9% positivity rate the university reported the previous 10-day period.
On Nov. 9, the university began its "testing blitz" to reduce the spread of COVID-19 as travel is likely to increase over the holiday season. Testing will end on Nov. 25, and students have been asked to register for an appointment-only test after completing a survey with their traveling plans.
If students travel outside the Tucson area over fall break, the university is asking them to complete the semester outside the area or remotely online. Those who don't travel can complete the semester from their student residences.
“Case numbers are rising here in Arizona and nationwide. I strongly encourage everyone to exercise extreme caution over this break. This means don’t travel. If you don’t have to, don’t do it.” Robbins said. “If you do travel, including going home from your student residence, quarantine after arrival.”
All students will complete the semester remotely when classes resume Nov. 30. In January, the university plans to return to stage two of its reentry plan with up to 50 students attending classes in person.
However, Robbins said if the current surge in COVID-19 cases continues over winter break, “we’re gonna have to go back and start all over like we did with this term.”
Pima County Public Health Director Theresa Cullen lauded the university for its coronavirus mitigation efforts but says the county is seeing alarming levels of cases.
According to Cullen, the seven-day rolling average for COVID-19 cases per day is at 439 throughout Pima County. In mid-October, the county saw 59 cases a day.
On Nov. 22, the county reported 878 new coronavirus cases, which Cullen says is the highest daily case count ever reported in Pima County.
“We are in a post accelerated stage of the pandemic right now. So while the university continues to do incredibly well and is an exemplar for us of what we could be doing, we are not seeing that in the general community,” Cullen said.
A science fiction author and his wife were found dead from gunshot wounds after Pima County Sheriff’s deputies discovered the couple in their Foothills home late Thursday, Nov. 19.
Sheriff’s deputies discovered 78-year-old Hayford Peirce with a self-inflicted gunshot wound while conducting a welfare check at the couple’s home on the 6000 Block of Pontotoc Road, near Sunrise Drive. His wife, 51-year-old Wanda Zhang Peirce, was pronounced dead on the scene from gunshot wounds, according to PCSD.
Peirce later died from his injuries at a local hospital on Saturday, Nov. 20.
The sci-fi author is best known for the novel Napoleon Disentimed.
Zhang Peirce previously owned Oro Valley restaurant Wanda Z’s Chinese, formerly Harvest Moon Chinese, which closed in 2015.
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.
