Pima County Reinstates Mask Mandate for Omicron Surge, as Gov. Doug Ducey Impotently Flails in Opposition

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The Omicron variant has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday. Omicron sweeps across nation, now 73% of new US COVID cases:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers showed nearly a six-fold increase in omicron’s share of infections in only one week.

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In much of the country, it’s even higher. Omicron is responsible for an estimated 90% or more of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. The national rate suggests that more than 650,000 omicron infections occurred in the U.S. last week.

Since the end of June, the delta variant had been the main version causing U.S. infections. As recently as the end of November, more than 99.5% of coronaviruses were delta, according to CDC data.

[On] Monday, the CDC revised its estimate for omicron cases for the week that ended Dec. 11, after analyzing more samples. About 13% of the cases that week were from omicron, not the 3% previously reported. The week before, omicron accounted for just 0.4% of cases.

CDC officials said they do not yet have estimates of how many hospitalizations or deaths are due to omicron.

Though there remain a lot of new infections caused by the delta variant, “I anticipate that over time that delta will be crowded out by omicron,” Walensky said.

This Omicron surge now spreading like a wildfire in the “Pandemic of The Unvaccinated” comes on the heels of this tragic milestone: COVID-19 becomes Arizona’s leading cause of death:

In the last year, since mid-December 2020, more than 14,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ data on COVID-19 deaths.

“That makes COVID-19 the leading cause of death in our state [entirely preventable deaths with vaccinations that are readily available at no cost], ahead of both heart disease and cancer,” said Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, adding that it doesn’t include people who died from other causes that went untreated because the medical system was overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. [i.e., “excess deaths.”]

“Deaths are almost exclusively occurring in people who were not previously vaccinated,” said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health.

https://twitter.com/Jamal___James/status/1472433809974906880

The frontline medical professionals who are once again being overwhelmed by a surge of unvaccinated Covid patients have begged Arizona state health officials and elected leaders to reinstitute mitigation measures during this Omicron surge, including mandating face masks in public spaces.

In response, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to reinstate a mask mandate as COVID-19 transmission remains high throughout the county. Pima County: Masks required for indoor public spaces:

Supervisor Matt Heinz [an emergency room doctor] brought the resolution before the board and acting County Administrator Jan Lesher recommended its approval. Supervisors Steve Christy and Rex Scott voted against the measure.

County residents will be required to wear a mask at indoor public places when continuously maintaining a 6-foot distance from others isn’t possible, but there’s no clear enforcement of these requirements.

With the mandate back in place, the county hasn’t specified plans to enforce it, but Dr. Heinz said it will give leverage to business owners enforcing the mandate on their premises.

“The idea is that this is a pro-business move to make sure that the businesses don’t have to have the clerk at the front desk be the enforcer, they can say, ‘Hey, the county’s requiring it, see what the sign says,’” Dr. Heinz said.

The mandate will remain in place until Feb. 28 pending COVID-19 case and hospitalization counts at that time.

As of Tuesday, the county’s transmission rate was 238 new cases per 100,000 of the population in the last seven days, according to the CDC, which considers transmission high when this number surpasses 100. The CDC recommends everyone in the county wears a mask in public indoor settings.

[O]n Tuesday, the White House said it’s sending medical personnel to Arizona to help deal with the ongoing surge of cases and nursing shortages throughout the state. The aid includes 20 paramedics from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help transfer patients to open beds, according to a news release from the White House.

The Tucson City Council will consider imposing its own mask mandate. Mayor Regina Romero expressed support for the county’s decision in a tweet after the vote Tuesday.

“I stand in support of Pima County’s mask mandate. Public health measures such as these are an important tool to prevent additional strain on our hospital system,” she wrote. “Together we can look out for the health of our workers and their families, especially as the holidays approach.”

Ahead of the Pima County Board of Supervisors vote, our criminally negligent Trump Death Cult Gov. Doug Ducey impotently flailed against Pima County in a tweet, falsely asserting that the County does not have the authority to implement the mask mandate over his authoritarian dictates.

Reminder: the Arizona Supreme Court struck down the Arizona legislature’s attempt to enact the anti-vaxxer and anti-masker credo of the Trump Death Cult into law, which they unconstitutionally attached to the state budget. Arizona Supreme Court rules Legislature illegally passed ban on mask mandates (Nov. 2, 2021):

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state Legislature illegally passed a ban on mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols by adding a series of measures in unrelated budget bills.

The unanimous decision was announced just two hours after the high court heard arguments in the state’s appeal.

The landmark decision, upholding a lower-court ruling against the Republican-controlled Legislature, has both short- and long-term impacts:

      • State laws banning COVID-19 mandates by schools, universities and governments remain on hold.
      • The ruling appears to nullify several controversial bills that have nothing to do with spending but were stuffed into this year’s state budget. Among them: a ban on mandatory COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including the use of face coverings; limits on the Democratic secretary of state’s powers; and restrictions on what schools can teach about race.
      • In the long term, the ruling could bring to an end the Legislature’s way of getting things done. The lawsuit took aim at the practice of “logrolling” – trading votes on a budget in exchange for a lawmaker’s pet piece of legislation that might have nothing to do with a budget.

In affirming the lower court ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that the practice of stuffing budget bills with unrelated policy legislation violated the state Constitution’s “single-subject rule” for bills.

Our criminally negligent Trump Death Cult Gov. Doug Ducey has regularly issued authoritarian executive orders trying to ban local governments from imposing Covid mitigation measures like mask mandates in public places. But our partisan hack Attorney General Mark Brnovich aka “Nunchucks” (or is it numbnuts?) issued an informal opinion earlier this year that the governor does not possess the power to issue his Trump Death Cult edicts. AZ Attorney General says AZDHS, not Ducey has authority over mask mandate (April 6, 2021):

In an informal letter sent out today to state leaders, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich says Governor Doug Ducey does not have the authority to rescind the mask mandate in Pima County.

However, Brnovich says the Arizona Department of Health Services does, but has not written any regulations on the matter.

Additionally, Brnovich says the county still maintains emergency public health powers, despite Gov. Ducey rescinding the requirement for masks under executive order 2021-06.

He suggests that it is unlikely that Pima County’s resolution to enforce mask-wearing, despite the governor’s order, is unenforceable due to the county’s emergency powers conflict with Ducey’s latest executive order.

Brnovich says the only way for Ducey to enforce his latest order is to go through the state health department, which would have to promulgate and enforce regulations to other counties.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has not promulgated any regulation banning local government Covid mitigation measures like mask mandates. It would be contrary to local health department emergency public health powers in law, and would insanely disregard basic public health care mitigation measures for a pandemic.

Governor Ducey’s latest tweet just demonstrates how unfit he is to serve in public office. He is a criminally negligent power hungry authoritarian responsible for thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths in Arizona because of his grossly negligent mismanagement of the Coronavirus pandemic. He is encouraging more Arizona residents to die unnecessarily from Covid with this latest tweet, building upon his record of failure.

Our partisan hack Attorney General Mark Brnovich should be charging Ducey with multiple counts of negligent homicide. Stop him before he can kill again.





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