The Daily Agenda: Despite summer spike, COVID rates still below-average
It’s back-to-school season … Get ready for some germs … Protesters outside Lee's house.
If you work, live or interact with students, you’re no doubt aware of the influx of germs that accompanies every year’s back-to-school season.
Most Arizona residents spend the dreadfully hot summer months hiding out indoors, which experts say can be linked to spikes in illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu.
COVID is on the rise in PIma County, and with schools starting back up, classrooms are poised to be breeding grounds for new cases of COVID, the flu, strep throat and more, according to Pima County Health Director Dr. Theresa Cullen.
“For the last four years now, we’ve had a height of COVID in the winter … and then again in the summer,” Cullen said. “If you think about it, and this is important for schools, these are the times when people are inside more. This is one reason we think we are seeing these epidemiological curves of the cases.”
Cullen told the Agenda that Pima County’s summer spike in COVID-19 cases is consistent with the rest of the country, but still below the county’s three-year average.
There were 424 cases of COVID-19 reported in Pima County the week of July 21 (the most recent available,) according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
That’s a 67% decrease from Pima County’s three-year average of 1,250 cases, despite dwindling booster rates.
In Pima County, 75% of the population received their primary vaccine series, but as or March, only 23% of the population had received a bivalent booster, according to the New York Times. This is in line with the CDC’s nationwide rates of 22% for adults and 15% for kids.
“The group that seems to get them the most and the group we are most worried about is people 65 and over,” Cullen said. “But if you are immunocompromised…we would recommend you get a booster now, even though we know that the new vaccine is coming out.”
This recommendation includes immunocompromised children. For healthy kids and teens, the department is recommending they wait for the new version of the booster to become available in a few months.
Cullen said that one of the department’s goals is to get people on a more consistent COVID-19 vaccination schedule, just like with an annual flu shot.
“If you got either shot last fall, you should plan on getting COVID and flu shots this fall,” she said. “Get them both at the same time.”
The health department is also working with school administrators and encouraging them to increase ventilation, ensure the use of quality air filters and when possible, hold classes outside.
But when it comes to tracking current cases, Cullen cautioned that the health department’s case count doesn’t include home tests, which make up the “vast majority.”
“The numbers are probably greater than what we were seeing,” Cullen said. “The CDC reported a few days ago that the (hospitalization) rates have gone up 0.3%, but we are not seeing an overwhelming number of people that need to be admitted to the hospital.”
And even though most current cases are mild and it’s unlikely that healthy people will get a serious case, that doesn’t mean they should skip the vaccine, Cullen warned.
“When your immunity from your vaccine wanes, say you don't get a booster right away, you could be at risk to get COVID,” she said. “But the fact that you get COVID makes your body make antibodies, so once again you're protecting yourself. We believe that’s the reason why hospitalizations are less and (there are fewer cases of) severe COVID.”
Cullen said the health department is still offering vaccines at its clinics on weekdays, and while it doesn’t have immediate plans to expand its prevention campaign, that could change if cases get more severe or people start dying.
“We would then expand our prevention campaign, which is to remind people to mask and we would expand our access to vaccines by doing more mobile and community-based vaccines,” she said. “We have a response in place, not only for COVID, but for any other contagious situation that may come up.”
Stay or go?: The Tucson City Council is slated to decide whether to extend the lease for the Tucson Roadrunners hockey team at the council meeting Wednesday, the Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock writes in his rundown of the topics up for discussion. The council also is going to discuss “forever chemicals,” the city’s approach to dealing with unhoused people, and the post-census redistricting process, among other issues.
Ceasefire protesters: Protesters went to Tucson City Councilwoman Nikki Lee’s house on Friday demanding she re-start the conversation about a ceasefire resolution the council nixed in April. They proceeded to “disturb the peace in our neighborhood” in front of her home and only left once Tucson police arrived, Lee said in a news release. They apparently focused on Lee because she made the motion at the April 9 council meeting to not move forward with a resolution about the Israel-Hamas conflict, and instead “leave room for each of us to express and advocate our own positions if and/or we see fit.”
Tapping into history: Dozens of historical newspapers, including El Tucsonense, which published from 1915 until the early 1960s, are now available to the public for free, KJZZ’s Kathy Ritchie reports. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities allowed the Library of Congress to put the newspapers online as part of the Chronicling America project.
Doors opened wide: The San Xavier del Bac Mission School has opened back up, two years after it closed indefinitely due to lack of enrollment and staff, Arizona Public Media’s Katya Mendoza reports. A dozen students from kindergarten through second grade are now attending the Catholic school on Tohono O’odham lands.
New resources for veterans: Tucson’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center is getting a new mental health clinic, as well as expanded primary care and emergency services, Arizona Public Media’s Paola Rodriguez reports. The new facilities should be complete by the end of the year and shorten wait time for veterans seeking services.
Bridge update: City of Tucson officials are holding public meetings August 7, 8, and 14 to explain the updated design for the 22nd Street Bridge Revitalization Project and the current status of the project. For more information visit the city’s website.
9,702: The number of COVID cases reported in 2024 in Pima County, as of last month.
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