PHOENIX โ Arizona is expected to receive โhundreds of thousandsโ of COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of this month, with priority for health-care workers, teachers, vulnerable populations and long-term-care residents, the stateโs health chief said Wednesday.
The announcement came as Dr. Cara Christ also disclosed that 1 person out of every 7 who got tested for the virus last week in Arizona was infected. She also reported a new one-day record for cases.
But Gov. Doug Ducey, standing by her side, refused to put any new mitigation measures or restrictions in place to get the state to the point where a majority of Arizonans can be inoculated.
He specifically rejected a proposal by the chief medical officers of several Arizona hospitals to put in place a curfew, close restaurants to indoor dining and cancel group athletic activities. Instead, Ducey said he is relying on the idea that Arizona will have sufficient hospital beds to treat those who get ill in the interim.
However, that assumes hospitals can find the qualified medical personnel to staff these beds.
Earlier Wednesday, Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for Banner Health, said the problem now, unlike this summer when virus cases peaked here, is that Arizona is no longer the state with the biggest surge. That makes it difficult to recruit help from elsewhere.
And while Banner is in the process of filling 1,500 positions, she said efforts are still underway to hire 900 more.
Ducey did agree Wednesday to provide an additional $60 million to Arizona hospitals to help them find the staff they need to handle the surge of people needing medical care. That is on top of a $25 million infusion less than a month ago.
โGrimโ forecasts for this month and next
Bessel said the picture in Arizona is โgrim,โ predicting that Banner hospitals will hit 125% of bed capacity this month and exceed that, at least briefly, in January.
That trend is not unique to Banner.
Intensive-care-unit bed use is already at 90% of capacity in the state, the most recent data from the Arizona Department of Health Services shows.
Hitting 125% is not necessarily a problem as hospitals are required to have plans in place for such a surge, including converting non-ICU beds and other facilities for intensive-care use.
But the Institute for Health Metrics Evaluation predicts the demand for ICU beds will hit 300% of capacity in Arizona by the middle of January unless there are additional steps taken to curb the spread of the virus.
It was for that reason that Bessel and medical officers from Mayo Clinic and Dignity Health specifically asked Christ this week to impose the additional restrictions.
Bessel specifically praised Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the City Council for voting Tuesday to impose a 10 p.m. curfew for three weeks.
โA curfew is mitigation that absolutely can work,โ Bessel said. โIt can work and it will work if we deploy it.โ
Ducey is not willing to take such steps, even as he conceded that the vaccines, which will only start to be available later this month โ and only for those in the highest priority classes โ wonโt make any immediate dent in an increasing trend in cases.
โWe are in for a tough several weeks here,โ the governor said at his news conference Wednesday.
He said he was giving his โmost sincere condolencesโ to the families of the 6,739 people in Arizona who have died so far from COVID-19.
โWe grieve every death in Arizona and want to continue to do everything we can to contain the spread of this virus and protect lives,โ Ducey said.
Ducey: Curfews โnot the right approachโ
But that wonโt include the kind of new restrictions being urged by the hospital medical chiefs and others, and not the kind of curfew that takes effect Friday, Dec. 4, in Tucson.
โI donโt think itโs the right approach,โ Ducey said. โWe want to do things that will allow businesses to operate safely.โ
He said the continuing restrictions imposed in late June, like occupancy limits on in-house restaurant dining, movie theaters and fitness centers, along with enforcement, โwill be the best things we can do to continue to slow the spread.โ
He brushed aside questions about the fact that the spread is not slowing, even as Christ acknowledged that 15% of the tests for the virus conducted last week are coming back positive.
โThis week weโre trending higher,โ she said.
The number of new cases reported per day hit a record on Nov. 23 in the state. Figures for more recent dates are still being updated.
For Ducey, the focus is on the economy.
โI donโt think the right answer is to throw hundreds of thousands of Arizonans out of work before the holidays to slow this spread because I donโt think it would slow the spread,โ he said.
He said there are other complications of restrictions, โlike suicide attempts, like depression, like emotional and social disconnection, like child abuse and like domestic violence.โ
Safety measures for large events
The lone new regulation of sorts that Ducey did impose Wednesday is not anything the state would enforce.
His current executive orders prohibit gatherings of more than 50 unless local governments approve. Now, he said, these governments will have to have a written agreement with event organizers that they will require and enforce certain safety measures, like distancing and the use of masks.
Nothing in Duceyโs orders affects activities he said are protected by the First Amendment, like the rallies the governor attended this year during President Trumpโs campaign.
That, then, leaves the vaccines.
More financial help for restaurants
Ducey said first priority will go to health-care and essential public-safety workers, residents of long-term-care facilities and other โvulnerableโ populations.
He is specifically including teachers in that first group.
That dovetails with his often-repeated argument that he wants more in-classroom teaching and less online education. The premise is that once teachers have immunity, they will be more willing to return to work in classrooms.
The date for vaccines for all Arizonans has yet to be determined.
Ducey issued an executive order Wednesday spelling out that all residents will be able to get inoculated โwithout financial barriers.โ
Ducey also set aside $1 million in grants to help restaurants and other dining facilities expand their outdoor dining operations.
There is a separate $100,000 going to the Arizona Restaurant Association for the same purpose, and another $100,000 to the Arizona Lodging and Tourism Association to aid hotels and their restaurants in strengthening their sanitation and mitigation practices to protect patrons and staff.
Not everything being done for restaurants is financial.
Ducey is suspending a provision in law that says restaurants can serve alcoholic beverages only to patrons dining in-house or at an outdoor patio directly connected to the business. That has proven to be a barrier for restaurants that have received local permission to operate in parking lots and on cordoned-off areas of the street where there is a sidewalk in between.
Tucson Medical Center and the Tucson Fire Department held a drill on April 10, 2020, to help establish procedures and solve problems when hand…
