Wednesday, September 23, 2020
With 438 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases topped 215,000 as of Wednesday, Sept. 23, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County had seen 25,004 of the state’s 215,284 confirmed cases.
With 27 new deaths today, a total of 5,525 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 613 deaths in Pima County, according to the Sept. 23 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline from July peaks, although the total has jumped by more than 100 people since Sunday. ADHS reported that as of Sept. 22, 583 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state. The number of hospitalized COVID patients peaked at 3,517 on July 13.
A total of 701 people visited emergency rooms on Sept. 22 with COVID symptoms, the lowest that number has been since June 2, when 587 people visited ERs. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.
A total of 114 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Sept. 22. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,396 cases, according to a Sept. 17 report from the Pima County Health Department. While a vocal minority continues to insist that masks do no good, the spread of the virus began to decline within weeks of Pima County’s mask mandate, as more people began wearing them in public, although the level of new cases has creeped back up in recent weeks with the return of UA students. For the week ending Aug. 29, 507 new cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 5, a total of 667 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 12, 584 cases were reported. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 55 in the week ending July 4 to 19 for the week ending Aug. 15, 13 in the week ending Aug. 22, 10 in the week ending Aug. 29 and three in the week ending Sept. 5. (As above, these numbers are subject to revision as recent deaths may not have been reported.)
Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 237 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 29, 38 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 5, 24 patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; and in the week ending Sept. 12, 16 patients were admitted. (Numbers are subject to revision.)
Get a Flu Shot
The Arizona Department of Health Services is implementing an aggressive plan of action during this flu season by distributing free flu shots vaccination to all Arizonans through doctor’s offices, pharmacies, local health departments and community healthcare centers statewide.
WASHINGTON – Gilbert resident Nadia Saco bought the home of her dreams this August. But landing it, she said, was a “nightmare.”
Saco, 32, and her husband, who spent a year and a half looking for a larger home for their growing family, were outbid on two houses before finally winning a bidding war for the home they’re in now.
“We had to pay all their closing costs. We wrote a personalized letter with a photo of our family. And we still barely got it. We offered, I think, $10,000 over asking price,” Saco said.
“It’s just a crazy, crazy market, especially in Gilbert,” she said.
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
PHOENIX – Civil rights marches. Anti-war protests. Rallies against gun violence.
Public demonstrations historically have involved the “mass mobilization of bodies,” according to Tiera Rainey, program director for the Tucson Second Chance Community Bail Fund and an organizer with Black Lives Matter Tucson.
But when the novel coronavirus struck, prompting warnings against crowds and close contact, Arizona’s new reality of social distancing forced organizers to rethink that framework.
"Every city and every neighborhood loses an essential part of itself when local history and culture are lost," says Hotel Congress owners Shana and Richard Oseran in letter to the community. "But the Cup Cafe, Club Congress, Copper Hall and 40 hotel rooms will soon be back and better than ever. The cultural hub will once again serve the community, which holds the true ownership of this historic landmark."
With the reopening comes a series of new events in the Congress plaza: Rhythm & Roots Taco Tuesday features Americana music and tacos from 6:30 to 10 p.m.; Soul Food Wednesday runs from 7 p.m. to midnight; and Blues & BBQ runs Sundays from 4 to 8 p.m.
Cup Café's new menu includes vegan breakfast tacos, mussels, hemp tamales and cauliflower tacos. Hotel Congress' new cocktails include specialty martinis, sidecars, margaritas and Manhattans. Cup Café now also features a Bloody Mary bar from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
For more information, visit hotelcongress.com
With 595 new cases reported today, the number of Arizona’s confirmed novel coronavirus cases closed in on 215,000 as of Tuesday, Sept. 22, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Pima County had seen 24,798 of the state’s 214,846 confirmed cases.
With 20 new deaths today, a total of 5,498 Arizonans had died after contracting COVID-19, including 617 deaths in Pima County, according to the Sept. 22 report.
The number of hospitalized COVID cases continues to decline from July peaks, although it jumped by 55 people yesterday. ADHS reported that as of Sept. 21, 527 COVID patients were hospitalized in the state. The number of hospitalized COVID patients peaked at 3,517 on July 13.
A total of 867 people visited emergency rooms on Sept. 21 with COVID symptoms, a jump of 38 from the previous day. That number peaked at 2,008 on July 7.
A total of 122 COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit beds on Sept. 20. The number of COVID patients in ICUs peaked at 970 on July 13.
On a week-by-week basis in Pima County, the number of positive COVID tests peaked the week ending July 4 with 2,396 cases, according to a Sept. 17 report from the Pima County Health Department. While a vocal minority continues to insist that masks do no good, the spread of the virus began to decline within weeks of Pima County’s mask mandate, as more people began wearing them in public, although the level of new cases has creeped back up in recent weeks with the return of UA students. For the week ending Aug. 29, 507 new cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 5, a total of 667 cases were reported; for the week ending Sept. 12, 584 cases were reported. (Recent weeks are subject to revision.)
Deaths in Pima County are down from a peak of 55 in the week ending July 4 to 19 for the week ending Aug. 15, 13 in the week ending Aug. 22, 10 in the week ending Aug. 29 and three in the week ending Sept. 5. (As above, these numbers are subject to revision as recent deaths may not have been reported.)
Hospitalization peaked the week ending July 18 with 237 COVID patients admitted to Pima County hospitals. For the week ending Aug. 29, 38 COVID patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; in the week ending Sept. 5, 24 patients were admitted to Pima County hospitals; and in the week ending Sept. 12, 16 patients were admitted. (Numbers are subject to revision.)
UA keeps Phase 2 of reopening plan on pause, cracks down on partying students
Dozens of official actions have been taken against students who violated COVID-19 safety precautions and hosted weekend social gatherings off-campus.
The university and the Tucson Police Department administered 20 red tags, 19 citations and 24 Code of Conduct violations over the weekend for student parties, according to UA President Robert C. Robbins, who shared the numbers during a press conference yesterday.
Robbins and other university leaders point to this behavior as the reason COVID-19 is spreading among the community, not the essential in-person classes that are currently taking place.
Robbins described a party he witnessed last weekend that drew more than 300 college students. He said the gathering was dispersed and student sanctions resulted from the incident.
“This kind of behavior will negatively affect everyone,” he said.
WASHINGTON – In a 27-year career on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote more than 200 opinions and countless dissenting opinions that were known for the sharp language that made them one of her trademarks.
Any case before the Supreme Court has national impact, but a fraction of cases the court decided during Ginsburg’s tenure directly affected Arizona. Some she wrote, others she dissented from.
Cronkite News reviewed the Arizona opinions – in the majority and minority – from Ginsburg, who died Friday due to complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer.
PHOENIX – With the presidents and chancellors of Big Ten universities voting to resume football last week, players and fans called on Pac-12 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott to join other Power Five conferences and allow the football season to kick off.
However, Scott said in a statement that universities in California and Oregon do not yet have approval from state or local health officials to begin contact practices. He expressed hope that the conference’s new testing partnership with Quidel Corporation would “help satisfy public health official approvals,” allowing a return to play.
The Pac-12’s member schools are spread across six states, and each has its own health guidelines that must be satisfied before schools there can return to playing contact sports. It’s a complicated puzzle the Pac-12 needs to solve before football can resume.
Here’s a look at the six pieces of the puzzle:
Monday, September 21, 2020
More than 50,000 workers have taken time off for virus-related reasons, slowing mail delivery. The Postal Service doesn’t test employees or check their temperatures, and its contact tracing is erratic.
For months, one postal worker had been doing all she could to protect herself from COVID-19. She wore a mask long before it was required at her plant in St. Paul, Minnesota. She avoided the lunch room, where she saw little social distancing, and ate in her car.
The stakes felt especially high. Her husband, a postal worker in the same facility, was at high risk because his immune system is compromised by a condition unrelated to the coronavirus. And the 20-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service knew that her job, operating a machine that sorts mail by ZIP code, would be vital to processing the flood of mail-in ballots expected this fall.
By mid-August, more than 20 workers in her building had tested positive for the coronavirus. Then, in a list of talking points on her supervisor’s desk, she spotted a reference to a new positive case at the plant. She had heard that someone she’d worked with closely a few days earlier was out sick, but no one at USPS had told her to quarantine, and no contact tracer had reached out to her. Although USPS’ protocol is to tell workers when they’ve been exposed to COVID-19, that didn’t happen, she and another postal worker familiar with the case said.
