Grand Canyon Times

In a recent meeting with President Donald Trump and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, Gov. Doug Ducey outlined what he said has been a successful effort on the part of the state’s residents to mitigate a surge in COVID-19 case numbers.

Some of those steps involved efforts to encourage mask wear and social distancing, Ducey told Trump during the meeting.

“We did take some further steps,” Ducey told Trump. “We were in the unhappy, but responsible position of dispersing large crowds.”

Ducey said that the state temporarily closed such gathering places as bars, nightclubs and gyms, and he credited those steps with the following four weeks of improvement in coronavirus case numbers.

“We’re gonna keep our guard up. We’re gonna stay vigilant,” Ducey said to Trump. ”But, there’s a real path forward and a common sense approach that we can apply in Arizona, not only around saving lives, but also safely and successfully getting our kids back to school at the appropriate time.”

Ducey gave much of the credit for success to the cooperation of state residents in following guidelines.

“I also want to say, our private sector folks have been terrific,” Ducey said to Trump. “If you want to participate in any good or service in Arizona, you’re gonna wear a mask before you go in there.”

Birx, who traveled by car to Arizona to assist the state government in designing a plan to deal with the peak in cases, said that she was very proud of what Ducey has done in implementing recommendations for reducing coronavirus case counts in the state.

“He was willing to be the first example of how to move forward together,” she said to Trump. 

A post on the Governor's Office website also touts the efforts the state has made such as setting up surge testing sites in Maryvale and South Phoenix, the deployment of 179 surge medical personnel, the distribution of 1.9 million N-95 masks and 12.1 million surgical masks, and allocating rapid point of care testing to approximately 100 nursing homes.