Vaccine Hesitancy Clinic
I’ll have much more on COVID and the recent changes in infections, variants, and vaccination rates, but I’m opening with a clinic being offered by the UA College of Public Health. In fact, the woman who won our Ward 6 survey laptop is leading the effort. We learned about her work while chatting when she came to collect her winnings.
Maiya Block is heading up this outreach. The goal is not to help you ‘win an argument,’ but instead is to help facilitate informative conversations with people who are still hesitant to get a COVID vaccination. The event will include some role-playing and talk through some of the common reasons people are using for not being vaccinated. Given that just over 53% of eligible people in Pima County have been vaccinated, the timing for this clinic is ideal.
The clinic will be held on Wednesday, August 4th, at 5:30 pm. To register, use this link: https://bit.ly/CovVacAug4. They’d also like you to complete a short pre-test before the workshop. You can access that at https://bit.ly/3wNeDu3.
Below you’ll read more on our current COVID situation. It should make clear the importance of reaching family and friends who still need to become a part of the COVID solution with a vaccination.
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Vaccine Update
With the changes we’re seeing in COVID, and Delta, in particular, I’m going back to opening with a vaccine update. During the height of the pandemic, I opened with COVID news. Unfortunately, we’re headed back in that direction.
Over the weekend, I heard one doctor speaking on the infectiousness of the Delta variant. As a way of describing how easy it is to transmit Delta, he said if you can smell the smoke from someone’s cigarette, you can catch this virus. That indicates the virus’ range for infecting someone.
This is a Risk Level map of the U.S. The darker the color, the greater the risk level. Oh, how things change so quickly with this virus. I’ve been writing about Utah, Nevada, and Colorado – being our neighbors, and suffering high rates of an infection increase. It has spilled over into Arizona. Most of the state is listed at a ‘high’ level of risk for infection. Pima County is in the ‘substantial’ risk range.
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What age groups are seeing the bulk of those infection increases? This NY Times chart shows the age breakdown. Ages 16 to 50 now make up the vast majority of the new cases. And why are our seniors not seeing high rates of increase? Speculation is that they are the most widely vaccinated group.
It’s also important to note that teens and younger are no longer immune. Significant numbers of new cases are being seen for ages 5-15. As school reopens, that’s a fact people should keep in mind. Young people in close quarters for hours each day in school may become vectors for spreading COVID back into their homes and neighborhoods. Thank you, Governor Ducey, for outlawing the ability to mandate vaccinations or masks in school settings.
And speaking of Ducey – last week, his trusty Health Director, Cara Christ, resigned. She served in that capacity for the past 6 years, rarely taking a position on health matters that differed from those put out by Ducey. However, in the past couple of weeks, Christ has finally broken ranks with the governor in a couple of areas; she advised people to wear masks in public while Ducey stood in the way of local mask mandates, and she has warned about school settings while Ducey issued his Executive Order barring schools from making masks or vaccinations mandatory. The governor’s public information officer, CJ Karamargin said, “there is no gap between Dr. Christ and the Governor on COVID policy.” Actually, there is.
We wish Christ well in her new role running the Blue Cross medical program.
The CDC issued their new masking guidelines last week. In response, multiple states and businesses have followed suit. In New York, they’ve adopted a mandatory vaccination policy. If you don’t, you do a COVID test weekly. President Biden is proposing the same for federal workers. In California and North Carolina, it’s simply a vaccination mandate, or lose your job as a state employee. Nevada has a new mask mandate for public spaces. Over 600 colleges and universities will now require all returning students to show proof of being vaccinated. And Apple, Google, and Disney have all put mask mandate policies into place.
In Tucson and Pima County, we’ve reinstituted our mask mandate for all city and county buildings. Everyone using the Ward 6 community or meeting rooms will, for now, be required to wear a face-covering while you’re in the building. That’s for everyone – vaccinated and not vaccinated. Masking is a vehicle that may mitigate community spread. Your family, friends, and loved ones are included in the word ‘community.’
Here’s another map that shows national hot spots. Take a look at Mississippi and the southeast. In this map, deep purple and red are what you want to avoid.
The Mississippi top state health officials are calling their surge ‘astounding.’ They’ve ordered hospitals to forgo some elective surgeries. Sound familiar? Their number of COVID infections in the past 2 weeks is double what they had during the first half of the month. Deaths have gone up by 51%, and they’re averaging 3-4 fatalities per day now.
Every state in the country is reporting significant increases in COVID case growth. Nationwide about 97% of hospitalized COVID patients are not vaccinated. For the ‘vax doubters,’ that’s probably not just a fluke data point.
Also, for the past few weeks, I’ve been pointing to Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida. In Louisiana, they were averaging less than 400 new cases per day at the start of July. Now they’re above 2,400 new cases daily. Look at the upper northeast – in Vermont, nearly 2/3 of the population is fully vaccinated. In those southeastern states, I named they’re at less than 1/3.
Here’s the graph showing the upswing in new cases. Yes, we’re way below where we were at the peak. And yes, the trend is headed in the wrong direction.
Last week I shared the comparison in vaccination data between counties in Arizona. Here’s the updated data. These numbers are the reason some counties are more at risk right now than other counties.
With all of that as background – here are the mobile sites our partners at Pima County Health will be operating this week. No appointment is necessary, and the vaccination is free.
 And these are the remaining standing points of vaccine distribution – same as with the mobile sites, no appointment will be needed. Do you remember not so long ago that everyone had to have an appointment, and getting one was a major hassle? Now there is no good excuse for not vaccinating.
 Go to the Pima County Health site if you want to find the list of pharmacies that’ll give you a dose or if you’re a veteran looking to be vaccinated. Use this link - www.pima.gov/covid19vaccine.
Each week since the start of June, our weekly COVID count has increased in Pima County. It has gone from 130 that first week of June to 681 two weeks ago. Last week we had 827 new cases. We’re now back to the levels we were seeing in March and April of this year. That spread is validated by the Rt (community spread rate) numbers in the table shown below.
Here’s the past month of ‘spread-rate’ data. Above 1.0 means the virus is spreading. Shortly after the UA reopened last fall, the Rt in the university zip code was 2.22. It’s headed in that direction again – and students don’t even report back for another couple of weeks. There’s some public information person at the UA named Pam somethingorother. She feels I’ve just got an ax to grind with them. In fact, I just want them to follow the science.
You can find the most current data at this site: https://covid19.arizona.edu/dashboard.
It wasn’t long ago that the news on COVID was mostly good. Now case counts are increasing, vaccination rates are falling, and people are out celebrating. Please consider the impact your actions will have on others. And get vaccinated.
Public Utility Manual
The rollout of the new 5G cell poles has been a constant thorn since the day they planted the first one in front of a resident’s home. Midtown was the lucky area to draw the short straw and be selected for the start of the rollout. But in the past couple of weeks I’ve seen new sites being requested in both Wards 2 and 5 – the east and the south side. So we may have been first, but as I warned my colleagues when I brought this to a study session, we won’t be the last.
One of the outcomes of the study session was my asking for an ordinance, or any other legal means appropriate to accomplish a couple of very basic things; one, a more robust public notice process, and two, some way to limit the number of ‘vertical elements’ popping up in our residential areas. The staff has just finished an exhaustive set of meetings held with utility companies, and we’re about to publish a Public Utility Administrative Manual (PUAM) that will guide how these poles are appearing. We’ll be the first in the state to put these protections into place.
In a very predictable outcome, the telecom providers – competitors in every other sense of the word – have joined together and advised us that they feel our manual is in violation of the state preemption law. It’s not. We are given the right to manage what happens in the public right of way, even in that preemption law, so we’re on solid ground with the manual.
One new part of the process will be public notification. Right now, the telecom providers are supposed to put outdoor hangers advising residents that there’ll soon be construction in their area. We’re implementing a new process in which for all new small cell poles, they’ll have to prepare an ‘informational letter’ that describes the work they’re planning, when design is expected to be completed, the anticipated construction start date and duration, and a point of contact where residents can send in their comments. Notifications will be sent out to a neighborhood representative, the ward office, and to all neighbors who live within 300 feet of the planned pole. A response period of 15 business days starts when staff advises the telecom company that their entire application is complete. So we’ve gotten your oar in the water prior to backhoes showing up in front of your home.
It’s important to note that we still cannot compel a particular location. And we still cannot compel them to collocate on other poles. But we have another new provision coming in the manual that will compel them to consider the location of other vertical elements before landing on a particular site. All new poles “shall be a minimum of 150 feet from an existing verticality.” That means, unless they’re granted a waiver from this, they must consider all streetlights, stop signs, and TEP poles that are within 150’ of the proposed cell pole. This forces the consideration of collocation that I’ve been trying to achieve through conversation. It hasn’t worked that way – it will this way.
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There’s a bunch more, including keeping them out of detention basins, proximity to trees, keeping them off the centerline of houses, distance from driveways, and requiring a traffic/barricade control plan being in effect. These are administrative policies the city has the legal authority to implement. The reality is that we wouldn’t have had to do this if the telecom’s had been willing to have these reasonable conversations with neighbors and us all along. I’ll include a link to the manual once it has been finalized and is ready to be put into use.
I’m grateful to the staff for all the time invested in this. And to all the neighbors who have suffered through the on-site meetings we’ve had with telecom, just trying to get them to see that even if they’ve got some protection by state law, we’re going to fight them for a more robust local voice.
The next move may be telecom going back to the state legislature to lobby against our manual. I know that many of our legislators are now well aware of how poorly their first pre-emption law was received. It will be a much different conversation when that lobbying starts again.
New PFAS Well Identified
I’ve shared this map before – it shows the red dotted outline of the PFAS contamination plume that’s threatening our midtown well field. The active wells are the blue dots. The red dotted lines are the suspected boundaries of the plume. This week though, I’ve added one more piece to the map.
Look in the upper right of the map. I’ve circled in red one of the active water wells. It’s located just east of Pantano, out by the Tanque Verde Wash. Last week, the well I’ve got circled was found to be contaminated with PFAS. It has been shut down and will only be used in case of an emergency need.
 Our internal standard for shutting down production wells is 18 parts per trillion (ppt.) The well out by the Tanque Verde is testing at just over 10ppt. As a part of our protocols, we have stopped using it to serve customers. But the fact that we’ve found PFAS out on the northeast side is troubling. There’s no clear source of the contaminant out there – unlike by DM or the Air Guard base. So Tucson Water is doing more investigating on this site and will report back to us with results.
In our litigation, Dayton, Ohio, was selected to be what’s called the ‘bell-weather city’ in the trial. That means they’ll be used as sort of the test case as the court looks at sources of contamination, how it has impacted the community and possible remedies. They chose Dayton over Tucson very likely because our response has been so significant – over $50M spent or committed – so the court is looking for a city that may be in more of an infancy state in terms of its response. This doesn’t affect our claim or the timing of our receiving some remediation.
Right now, the new ‘find’ out by Pantano is not alarming, but it is of concern. The level identified in the testing is not insignificant. Working on identifying the source is an important next step as this whole PFAS issue continues to unfold. Water had to be added to Lake Powell recently in order to assure its continuing ability to provide hydroelectric power to Arizona cities. Don’t be fooled by our recent rain. We’re still in the midst of a drought and will need our groundwater to be clean as soon as reductions in our Colorado River water begin.
Barstool Sports
Barstool Sports is an online sports gambling company that in 2020 was valued at over $450M. Since its 2003 inception, it has branched out to include over 7 million followers on Instagram, 38 podcasts, and dozens of side Twitter accounts. Last week the Arizona Bowl announced Barstool Sports is now the new title sponsor for Tucson’s post-season bowl game that’s held in Arizona Stadium, on the UA campus.
Reports are that the football game will be live-streamed on the Barstool platform. It’s not clear yet what impact that will have on over-the-air broadcasting. Taking people into the Barstool online world, though, brings some controversy. It’s controversy I’m a little surprised the Arizona Bowl was willing to embrace – even to get a title sponsor.
Dave Portnoy is the founder of Barstool. He brings to Tucson and the University of Arizona campus a history of being unapologetic for the racist and sexist language he has used in the past. Without getting into graphic detail, a couple of examples include Portnoy saying of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick “throw a head wrap on this guy, he’s a terrorist. He looks like a Bin Laden.” He has done videos in black face, and in response to the use of the N-word, has said, “I’m uncancellable.”
Portnoy has also tweeted about hating unions and threatening to fire any of his employees “on the spot” if they reached out to any union for representation. In response, the New York State Department of Labor wrote that “it is illegal to take any unfavorable action – including termination – against employees for union-related activities under the National Labor Relations Act.”
If getting on the air with one of the major networks such as ESPN is the Arizona Bowl’s goal, signing on with Barstool was not a great strategic move. In 2017, ESPN tried the relationship. One of their female producers took exception, noting that Portnoy had referred to her as a “Bible-thumping freak” and a slut – adding several other sexually-focused comments about her. ESPN canceled the relationship after one show. So he’s evidently not ‘uncancellable.’
He has received repeated criticism over normalizing rape with comments posted on the Barstool Sports site. Some examples include Portnoy’s statement that “even though I never condone rape, if you’re a size 6 and you’re wearing skinny jeans, you kind of deserve to be raped, right?” Barstool sponsors “blackout parties” where students are encouraged to drink until they blackout. Referring to one of those, he said, “we don’t condone rape of any kind at our Blackout Parties...however, if a chick passes out, that’s a gray area.” And when the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission agents confiscated 300 fake IDs and refused admission for around 75% of a Blackout Party event’s 2,000 ticket holders, Portnoy said they wouldn’t be scheduling any more events in Boston because “it just doesn’t seem like Boston is friendly to the nightlife of our sort.”
I have no idea what the financial deal is between Barstool Sports and the Arizona Bowl, but there are times when standing for an ethical position shouldn’t be for sale. Given the recent history of the UA football program and incidents/allegations of sexual assault, as well as the whole idea of sports gambling in collegiate athletics, I’m a bit surprised the leadership in athletics and the UA president has been silent on this new sponsorship.
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Washington Monthly – Gun Sanctuary Cities
 (Photo credit - /Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP File)
When I asked the M&C to adopt a Resolution announcing that in the City of Tucson, we will adhere to federal gun laws, it resonated with gun safety advocates nationwide. There are several states and cities who are adopting what are called “2nd amendment sanctuary” laws. Their common thread is saying that they won’t follow federal guidance on gun control legislation. Arizona and some counties in Arizona have declared themselves ‘2nd amendment sanctuary’ areas. In Tucson, we’ve let Ducey and the legislative leadership know that we will be enforcing all gun laws, including those that come from the feds.
The Washington Monthly called to talk about the issue. Here’s a link to the piece:
How Pro-Gun Cons Aped Sanctuary-City Libs-Washington Monthly
It’s a well-written article giving the perspective of many local officials who simply aren’t buying the state pre-emption. My comments close out the article. Here’s what author Alex Dalton captured from our rather lengthy conversation:
Arizona is seeing its own version of the conflict begin to play out. In June, the Tucson City Council passed a resolution that keeps city gun laws in line with federal ones, and empowers the Tucson City Attorney to enter into litigation to defend the city’s gun policies. “It was explicitly to engage at a federal level litigation to get these things thrown out,” Tucson City Council Member Steve Kozachik said. That Arizona state legislators assert their right to make their own gun policy while denying that right to cities strikes Kozachik as a “cascade of hypocrisy.”
“You hear these guys talk about states’ rights and telling the federal government, ‘don’t dip your pen in our ink,’ ” he said. “And they use as a reason for justifying that [the idea that] the level of government that’s closest to the people is the one that ought to be making the decisions.” Then, he said, they turn around and say, “’ well, we know better than you in the local jurisdiction, so we’ll preempt your local ability to legislate’…. We’re not going to be intimidated.”
Our Resolution is in place. We will be enforcing federal gun laws. The next move is up to the other side.
Primary Election
Tomorrow is your last chance to take part in the 2021 primary election. All totaled, the city sent out about 94,000 ballots in the 3 ward primaries. Roughly 20% have been returned.
I’m not naïve enough to think the other 80% are headed for polling places on Tuesday, but I hope it’s a big turnout – if only as a statement about the significance of these jobs. Examples – scan some of my newsletters; PFAS, gun control, 5G in your neighborhood, RTA, Sunshine Mile, animal welfare, Accessory Dwelling Units, public safety, water rates/water security, zoning and redevelopment, the Benedictine – the decisions we make directly affect your quality of life. If you’re thinking of sitting it out, please reconsider and find the polling location closest to you. They’re listed in the table below. You will be required to wear a mask at all of the polling locations.
 Ward 6 Survey
Thank you all for taking part in our 3 summer surveys. Last week we touched on parks, but also a lot on our whole public safety process. We were happy to have Assistant Chief Chad Kasmar walk us through the ins and outs of the 911 center and to be there to touch on many other aspects of policing in Tucson.
Tucson police are understaffed. So is the 911 center. And so are our support staff personnel. These are difficult positions to fill nationwide, and Tucson is no different. We are filling academies regularly, and I’m committed to continuing that for commissioned officers, continuing to work on staffing up Community Safety Officers, behavioral health support staff, and our communications center employees. The pay increases we recently gave should help. The new equipment our officers and 911 staff have received should help. But virtually every major law enforcement agency in the nation is struggling to keep good officers. Thanks to Chad for taking his time to share with us last week. We appreciate his time and his dedication to Tucson.
And also I’ll repeat my thanks to transportation director Diana Alarcon for taking part in the first 2 Zooms. We touched on 5G, development, Complete Streets, the RTA, and other important topics. You can find the links to all 3 of the meetings below.
And most importantly, thanks to all of you who took the time to participate. Having seen the receptiveness for these sorts of outreach, we’ll certainly do this again.
Here’s the link to the public safety/parks meeting from last week.
Here is our last meeting on July 27th Steve's Virtual Summer Roundtable III
Topics:CrimePublic SafetyHomelessnessEquityParks. Also, giving a quick review of the progress we’re making in our Prop 407 parks rollout, provide some background...
If you’d like to take a look at our July 8th roundtable, this Youtube link will take you to it. https://youtu.be/CO4cybvj1lE
And here’s the link for our meeting held on the 20th.
July 20th: Steve's Virtual Summer Roundtable II - YouTube
During the Zoom, Maria Robinson from the communications center shared this option for people who just have general questions about city resources. Since the start of COVID, we’ve had 791.2540 up and running for people who simply want to check on how the pandemic is affecting city services. It’s still active Monday through Friday during regular business hours. It’s a great resource for questions you’ve got that are important, but that doesn’t require a 911 dispatcher to get involved. Using the resource line will free up our emergency dispatchers for calls that really do require a 911 level of response. Thanks to Maria for taking part in the Zoom and for including this information during the call.
Tales from the Pumpkin King’s Cameraman
A few weeks ago, I shared that my brother’s book, Tales from the Pumpkin King’s Cameraman, is now available online at Amazon. In the most recent edition of American Cinematographer, Pete had a lengthy article that covered how they did the lighting in Nightmare before Christmas. I’m not savvy enough about the technical parts of the film to have absorbed it all, but I did find many of the pictures of movie sets and some of the models (they call them puppets) they use in stop motion animation fun and fascinating.
This is Jack Skellington – the co-star of Nightmare. Jack is being shown along with his many replaceable heads. They change heads to fit the mood of a scene. Next time you see Nightmare, you can have this shot in mind as a fun way to relate to the way the facial features were put onto the big screen.
 Over the weekend, I shared some email exchanges with Peter Catalanote from the Visit Tucson film office. Peter is working with an HBO crew to find locations in and around Tucson for a shoot they’re planning. That’s live-action. Pete’s work is a combination of animation and live-action. It’s all film, and it all belongs in the Tucson and Pima County economy. The city and the county partnered to attract the HBO show. With incentives coming from the state in the form of a film industry rebate package, we’d see a lot more of the film industry looking for locations in our region. It’ll come – until then, my expression towards the leadership in the state legislature that’s blocking a film incentive is B47 in Jack’s choices above.
Legacy Business Program
The film industry is what I’d call one of the region’s legacy industries. Barb Coffee is the head of our Economic Initiatives office. She’s right now leading an effort to recognize individual legacy Tucson businesses. The program was launched last week.
To be eligible for the “Legacy Business” designation, a business must be independently owned, for-profit, and it has to have been in continuous operation for at least 25 years. A break in operations of less than a year is ok. Nominees should provide a narrative that describes their impact in the community, and importantly, a commitment to hanging in there and continuing operations. The city is putting together a team of staff who’ll review applications, and Barb and her team will determine the final eligibility within 60 days of the submission.
Please use this link to apply online - online application
Each business that is eligible for the Legacy designation may be recognized in City of Tucson marketing materials, including print, interactive maps, brochures, and recognition at city-sponsored events. It’s a good news program aimed at supporting our local, independently-owned businesses. And use this link to access the city Economic Initiatives site: Office of Economic Initiatives
Eviction Prevention
With the federal eviction moratorium ending, it’s important to stay engaged with your landlord and to take advantage of resources that are in place to keep you housed. In partnership with the county, we’re working through the Community Investment Corp (CIC) to provide rental and utility assistance. The Emergency Rental Housing Assistance Program (ERAP) still has funding available. Call them at 447.4423 or visit their website at www.tucsonep.com.
Other ways to do some self-advocacy include working with the constable’s office. Our direct point of contact is Constable Kristen Randall. She can put you in touch with several avenues to get assistance. She’ll also remind you to stay in touch with your landlord. That’s key to each strategy for staying in your home. Reach Kristen at 850.3973.
The Primavera Foundation can help with resources and connecting people to services. They’re at 308.3079. Our Housing folks have designated staff to serve as a resource for people facing eviction. Call Brandi Champion at 850.6566 for that assistance. And the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness can get you hooked up with a Coordinated Entry assessment - a form needed if you’re within 14 days of losing your housing. Go to www.tpch.net/coordinatedentry for that help.
The city has extended our moratorium on evictions for the city-owned property until the end of the year. But for non-city properties, you may need, or you may know, someone who can benefit from these resources. Please share the information with those who can benefit.
Booting Resumes
Pre-COVID, we were just on the front end of a program geared to getting people with multiple outstanding parking violations to pay their fines. Along with several other programs, that one was put on hold. Effective August 9th, we’ll resume the ‘booting’ program.
Park Tucson is partnering with Tucson City Court, so they’re 100% up to speed on whether a person has outstanding fines. When an enforcement agent is citing a vehicle on a city street or on city property, they will check records to see if the owner has 3 or more unpaid parking citations. If they do, the agent will place a “barnacle” on the windshield, which will effectively make the car undrivable. In addition, the agent will place a sticker on the driver’s side window that will contain a Tucson City Court hearing date and time. That will be scheduled within 48 hours of when the car is booted. If the fines are not paid or at least working out a payment plan with the judge, the vehicle may be ordered to be towed until the fees are paid or a plan has been approved.
 As of June 30th, there were 807 people on city records who fall into the ‘3 or more unpaid citation’ category. Collectively they owe over $900K. Being on this list is not a surprise to the person. The city sends numerous reminder letters, first from Park Tucson and then from City Court. Ahead of the resumption of the booting program, Park Tucson has sent one more reminder to each person on the list. Our parking regulations are in place for a reason – without enforcement, they’re meaningless.
Expungement Clinic
Thanks to Mike from NORML and his team of attorneys and law school students who took part in our pot expungement event on Saturday. At least 10 people came through and got their paperwork in the mail to clear their records. We will be doing another one of these.
If you’re thinking of qualifying for a home loan and you have a low-level pot conviction on your record, you should consider our next clinic. If you want to do volunteer work at your grandkid’s school, you’ll need a fingerprint card. A lingering low-level pot conviction may cause you to be refused that card. If you want a real estate license, your 1970’s lingering conviction for possession of a joint will cause you to be rejected. The records are chasing people, and even decades later may have real-world impacts on choices you want to make.
If you’d like more background on how expungement works and the ways NORML is helping people through that process, check this link. It also includes clinics that are being held statewide.
https://arizonanorml.org/expungement
Low-level pot convictions can affect housing and employment applications. Stay tuned for our next clinic. I know we’ve got people scattered throughout midtown who can benefit.
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Basketball National Champions
With the Tokyo Olympics going on, it’s easy to miss some local stars who deserve recognition. The Arizona Storm is our local wheelchair women’s basketball team. They just returned from the national championship tournament held in Arlington, Texas – and they brought home the national champion hardware.
 Three members of the team will be traveling to the Paralympics in August and will compete on the USA Women’s wheelchair basketball team. In their 51-31 win over Dallas in the finals, the Storm starting lineup included 5 current and former Team USA Paralympians. Congratulations to the Storm for this wonderful accomplishment.
The Storm is sponsored by Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports (SAAS) and, through that, is included in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. SAAS is organized by Mia Hansen – you might remember her from her days at Tucson Meet Yourself. She’s now out advocating for and supporting SAAS – a women and disability-led local non-profit. You can find out how to support their work through this link:
Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports (SAAS)
Harvard Global Health Institute
This is the Risk Level map from the Harvard folks that I had in last week’s newsletter. It was far worse than what had been in the previous week.
And here’s how the infection had spread as of last weekend. Much of the spread is in the southeast. But Arizona and our neighbors are seeing increases as well. It’s largely Delta variant-related.
Three weeks ago, Pima County had a spread rate of 3.9 new cases per 100,000 people. Two weeks ago, it was up to 6.7. Last week we were at 8.9 cases per 100,000 people and a 7 day moving average of 93 new cases. This is our current map – we've moved from risk level yellow to risk level orange. That means we’ve moved from “community spread” to “accelerated spread.”
In Pima County, we’re now up over 800 new cases in the past week. The first week of June, we had 130. Dr. Cullen from Pima County health said last week that the new increases in cases will likely lead to an increase in hospitalizations. That didn’t compel the UA to mandate testing last year at this time, and it can’t compel them to mandate vaccinations since that's now off the table in Arizona. But they can implement rules surrounding large gatherings. So far, they’ve announced full capacity will be the rule at all events. We’ll see what the next month brings.
You can check what’s going on in your home county by hovering your cursor over it on the Harvard map. Use this link to access it:
https://globalepidemics.org/key-metrics-for-covid-suppression/
Here’s our statewide map. These are cumulative numbers. As noted above, they’re increasing once again.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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