IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Josselyn Berry
November 18th, 2020
PHOENIX -- Arizona Legislative Democrats released the following statement in response to Governor Ducey’s latest actions on COVID-19.
Incoming Senate Democratic Leader Rebecca Rios:
“Today Arizona added 3,206 new COVID-19 cases and 53 more Arizonans lost their lives, leaving their families and loved ones devastated. And today, the Governor had the opportunity to take bold action to mitigate this new spike and put people back to work and school safely -- to at least follow the White House and CDC guidelines for mitigation, but he again came up short. Other than the additional $25 million to help hospitals combat the virus, the Governor’s half measures are inadequate to substantially slow the spread of the virus. We continue to urge the Governor to take swift and preemptive actions to curtail the virus’s spread, beginning with a statewide mask mandate. This fragmented approach has had clear consequences for struggling Arizona families and our economy. The holiday and flu season are fast approaching and our COVID-19 cases are reaching deadly summer levels. So please do your part and mask up. We must do more, work together and let science be our guide to stop the spread.”
Incoming House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding:
"We need to get Arizonans back to work safely if we are going to rebuild our economy. We cannot effectively do that by continuing to take passive steps while cases spike and as more people are losing their lives and livelihoods. House and Senate Democrats have repeatedly called for a statewide mask order knowing that more people will respect it if it comes from the Governor. We also need ongoing and proactive COVID-19 testing and contact tracing per CDC guidelines, and PPE for medical professionals and schools. Additional resources for hospitals and frontline workers will help, but it is clear that we need to do more than the status quo, and we stand ready to work with the Governor when he is ready to increase state unemployment benefits and provide further small business support. Our time is running out as the holiday and flu season are fast approaching and our COVID-19 cases are reaching deadly summer levels. A vaccine is on the horizon but it's not the immediate horizon. Until then we must listen to the science and I urge you to take every possible precaution for the ones you love and your neighbors until we can drastically curb the spread of COVID-19 once again.”
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