Supervisor-elect Matt Heinz: Drastic action needed now to curb COVID's march

The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:

“It has to stop.”

Just over a week ago, those four words, spoken at a press conference in Georgia, went viral. Gabriel Sterling, the man at the microphone, was calling on the nation to accept the outcome of the November election. But his desperate plea rings true in so many aspects of our lives at this moment.

It has to stop — it’s an appeal that resonates with me every night during my shifts in the emergency room at one of our city’s major hospitals, where I am a physician. There I see the devastating impact of COVID-19 in our community. It’s how I feel every morning when I return home, physically and emotionally depleted from 12 or more hours working to save my patients, heartsick for those we’ve lost.

We are in the midst of a public-health catastrophe, with each new record of reported daily cases shattering the previous one. On Tuesday, Dec. 8, Arizona Department of Health Services announced a reported 12,314 new confirmed cases in just the past 24 hours, with 957 of those in Pima County. COVID-19 related hospitalizations are climbing at an alarming rate, threatening to overwhelm the health-care system in our state. Critical-care bed capacity is severely limited. We may be out of ICU beds in Pima County in a matter of days.

When the health-care system cannot accommodate patients in need of higher acuity care, the entire community is at risk — not only those suffering from COVID-19, but also people who require critical care for other conditions like heart attacks, strokes or traumatic injuries.

County governments across the state, including Pima County, have taken measures to try to reduce the further spread of this virus and alleviate some of the pressure on the health-care system.

But these measures alone are not enough — we must go further.

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In order to curtail the rampant spread of this deadly disease, it’s time to temporarily close bars, prohibit indoor dining at restaurants, and strictly enforce mask mandates everywhere.

We also need members of Congress to stand up and do their part.

While most CARES Act funds available to local jurisdictions have already been spent or allocated to ensure a robust public-health response and critical emergency support, businesses that have to close or severely limit operations in order to help us tame this deadly surge in COVID cases will need financial support to survive.

Just as Congress must act this week to extend expanded unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, it must also move swiftly and unequivocally to pay owners of bars, restaurants, and other small businesses that must close or radically shift operations until COVID is under control.

Time is of the essence.

If the federal government and local governments do not take this action, or if these measures fail to adequately reduce the spread of coronavirus, then state and local governments will be forced to enact another stay-at-home order similar to the ones last spring.

The more aggressively we respond to the pandemic now, the more lives we will save and the faster we will be able to achieve a long-lasting economic recovery.

It has to stop — and it will, if we act now.