Do not get me wrong. Arizona still has way too many new COVID-19 cases per day. Our COVID-19 testing is still very inadequate, and Arizona citizens still have to wait way too long to get tested and to get those test results back. Our hospitals are still very crowded, and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey still has not issued a statewide facemask order.
Governor Doug Ducey actually ended the Arizona COVID-19 shutdown way too early. Back in May, Ducey also mandated that cities could not place additional COVID-19 restrictions on citizens unless the health department, which he controls, approved any city of county changes in COVID-19 policy. The results were that Arizona infections shot up like a rocket.
However, after the Arizona infection rate went crazy, and after weeks of petitioning by various mayors of Arizona cities, around June 17, Governor Ducey actually managed to do two things right. Ducey reversed one of his positions and allowed localities to make more restrictive COVID-19 rules. He also began recommending the wearing of facemasks. A number of Arizona cities, including Tucson, home of Mayor Regina Romero, immediately jumped on this and issued mandatory facemask edicts for their areas.
As one can see from the Google.com chart below, Arizona is starting to bend the curve.
The city facemask mandates seem to be making a difference. I live in Tucson, Arizona, where most of the people in Pima County, Arizona live. From the various charts that I have looked at recently, the Pima county new infection rate seemed to stabilize around July 5 and actually started to go down around July 11, based on the seven-day average of the number of new infections in Pima County. So, about 18 days after Tucson Mayor Romero began mandating the wearing of masks, the new infection rate stabilized, and about 24 days after the city facemask mandates the new infection curve began heading downward.
COVID-19 new infections 7 day average in Pima County. From the Facebook group that I belong to, Tucson coronavirus Updates Link: www.facebook.com/...
This is why I support the Atlanta mayor Keisha Bottoms in her mandatory facemask fight against that idiot Republican Governor Brian Kemp, and why all of us must keep pushing the importance of wearing masks. The countries around the world that have done the best in the fight against COVID-19 have been the countries that pushed wearing masks the hardest. Without a nationwide shutdown, it is important that people wear facemasks when they leave the house and will be around other people. This is really our only hope to greatly reduce the number of COVID-19 infections.
On Friday, July 17, I went to three Tucson, Arizona stores. I went to Fry’s and Spouts, both grocery/food stores, and we went to Costco. All three stores have their own mandatory mask-wearing policies posted at the front door. Among all three stores, I saw dozens upon dozens of people wearing facemasks, and only one person, a middle-aged guy, who was not wearing a mask. Arizona is starting to flatten the curve because we have begun taking the wearing of facemasks seriously. We still have a long way to go, but we are starting to make progress. The CDC says that if we all wore masks, we could get COVID-19 under control in two months. I believe it.
Good luck, everyone! Stay safe and stay alive for yourself, for your family, and for November! :)