Gov. Ducey is in denial regarding COVID-19

Arizona is now the new national hotspot.

For COVID-19, that is.

The number of daily cases has nearly tripled, on average, from just a few weeks ago, and the number of available ICU hospital beds is dwindling.

Faced with mounting evidence that Arizona is headed in the wrong direction, Gov. Doug “data-driven” Ducey plans to do ...

... well, nothing, it seems, except the occasional reminder to wash your hands.

Clearly, though, Ducey is feeling the heat.

On Monday, his former chief of staff, Kirk Adams, blistered former state Health Director Will Humble for daring to point out that doing nothing is not an acceptable strategy.

In a series of derisive tweets, Adams called it “a good day for the administration and an even better day for public health” when Humble resigned, clearing the way for the hiring of Dr. Cara Christ.

Humble, now executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, has sounded the alarm in recent weeks, warning that though there is adequate hospital capacity right now, that could quickly change if the state doesn’t take immediate action to try to limit spread of the novel coronavirus.

He has called for Ducey to require masks in indoor spaces, to enforce sanctions against businesses that are not following CDC guidelines and to allow cities to take further action to try to limit spread of the disease.

Last week, however, Ducey held a press conference to excuse away the increase in cases as the result of increased testing. By his strained reasoning, a 25% in testing over two weeks has resulted in a 76% increase in confirmed coronavirus cases.

More likely, it’s the result of people crowding into bars to party and onto the streets to protest and into all manner of public places without benefit of a mask or six feet of personal space.

Meanwhile, the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation is now projecting that more than 7,415 Arizonans will die by Oct. 1. This, up from a previous prediction of 2,900 coronavirus-related deaths by Aug. 4.

One would think that a “datadriven” governor would be ... you know ... driven by data.

Maybe even by his own state’s dashboard, which shows a spike not only in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and percentage of positive tests in Arizona but in the number of ICU hospital beds in use — from 72% on May 15, the day his stay-at-home order ended, to 82% on Sunday.

Ducey, though, insists that the state

is prepared for a run on hospitals and says it’s time to “learn to live” with the virus.

“The virus is not going away,” he said on Thursday. “There’s no cure for this virus and no vaccines. We need to learn to live with it and make sure we are protecting the most vulnerable in our society.”

Ducey took a political beating when he locked down the state. He will not (and should not) do it again. He’s right to point out that we do need to learn to live with this highly contagious virus and to make sure we are protecting the most vulnerable among us.

He just not interested, apparently, in doing anything to actually make that happen.

Ducey increasingly sounds like he’s thrown in the towel on this thing and he’s getting backup from his state health director, Dr. Cara Christ.

“We are not going to be able to stop the spread,” Dr. Christ said last week, “so we can’t stop living as well.”

That’s true. But surely there is something Ducey could do.

Perhaps it starts with a governor who models good behavior by taking that mask out of his pocket once in a while. Or one who requires the use of masks in places where six-foot distances cannot be maintained.

Maybe it starts with a governor who actually enforces his own executive orders — or adjusting them if, say, bars and nightclubs, are dancing a conga line through the loopholes.

Maybe it starts with a governor who allows the cities to take further action in their own communities, should locally elected city councils believe it is warranted.

Or maybe it starts with a governor who is as aggressive in ramping up testing and contact tracing as he was in ramping down his stay-at-home order.

One who balances public health and the health of the economy and leaves politics out of the equation.

Instead, sadly, it starts with the governor whose former chief of staff – a guy who has maintained close ties to Ducey – blisters the former public health chief who is urging the governor to take action.

“I agree with him (Ducey) that we have hospital capacity today and probably we will next Friday,” Humble said last week. “If we don’t change course and put in some simple interventions now, it might not be that way on July 4.”

Meanwhile, Arizona’s rate of infection has risen to 63 per 100,000 people over the last 72 hours (as compared with 12.5 per 100,000 in New York), according to data compiled Johns Hopkins University.

This, in a state where the official policy seems to be that the coronavirus is so last month ...