Ducey gives state businesses a break
Governor lifts emergency occupancy restrictions; bars, restaurants, water parks can operate at full capacity
Citing expanded vaccine availability and declining COVID-19 case numbers, Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday announced he would relax emergency restrictions previously placed on businesses.
While mask and physical distancing requirements will not change, businesses including bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters and water parks can now operate at full capacity.
Spring training and Major League sports can also pick up after submitting and receiving approval for safety plans, which are expected to include reduced capacities, seating pods for small groups and touchless payment systems. Cactus League stadiums have already implemented some of these changes.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past year,” Ducey said in a statement accompanying the surprise announcement, which came two days after he ordered schools to return to in-person learning by March 15.
“Our businesses have done an excel
lent job at responding to this pandemic in a safe and responsible way. We will always admire the sacrifice they and their employees have made and their vigilance to protect against the virus.”
The rollback comes as health officials throughout the country have heralded the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines but cautioned against lifting restrictions before the shots are more widely available.
Epidemiologists have said abruptly reversing course on prevention measures could lead to an avoidable surge in cases. When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott eliminated a statewide mask mandate and occupancy caps earlier this week, for instance, COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci deemed the move “inexplicable.”
In his statement, Ducey acknowledged Arizona — which has lost more than 16,000 residents to the virus and continues to average more than 1,200 new cases a day — was not fully “in the clear.” But he said he had “hope for the future.”
“We always knew that fighting this virus would be dependent on the personal responsibility of everyday Arizonans,” he said.
Medical professionals call rollback ‘premature’
Ducey, who has not briefed the public since Dec. 16, announced Friday’s changes via social media and an emailed press release. Noting that Arizona had administered more than 2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, he said the state, “like the rest of the country,” had “made its way out of the winter surge of cases.”
That’s true, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. While cases, deaths and hospitalizations are down in Arizona after the holiday spike, average daily case numbers are actually higher than they were last fall. And fewer than 1 million people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — broad swaths of the population still aren’t eligible for a first dose.
“Now is not the time to relax our mitigation efforts,” the Health System Alliance of Arizona said in a statement on Friday, noting that medical professionals want to “return to normal” just like everyone else. “We must stay the course to ensure that our vaccination efforts can outpace the spread of the virus.”
Dr. Farshad Fani Marvasti, a physician and associate professor at the University of Arizona College of MedicinePhoenix, similarly called the move “premature.”
He stressed that health experts still aren’t sure how long COVID-19 immunity lasts and deemed emerging variants of the virus a “wild card.” It’s also unclear how Ducey’s proposal will work in practice: The governor did not explain how bars and restaurants could operate at full capacity while keeping tables 6 feet apart, for instance.
“While there’s great hope in this latest decrease in numbers after the latest winter surge … we’re almost assuming kind of one of those ‘mission accomplished’ moments when we’re not quite there yet,” Marvasti said.
On a call with reporters Friday afternoon, Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ said officials agreed the state was “not out of the woods.”
But she argued the spike observed during the holiday season had more to do with private gatherings where people failed to use masks and other safety tips — “it wasn’t necessary the establishments or the occupancy limits that had an impact,” she said.
“As long as people are … staying distanced and wearing masks at all times except when actively eating or drinking, we felt with the current community transmission (level) that we could reduce the occupancy requirements that had been put into place,” she said.
“Being able to lift this for our businesses as we are seeing improved metrics is a key step forward.”
GOP: ‘Great news for Arizona’
Some Republican lawmakers contended the state still wasn’t acting aggressively enough, however.
“I would prefer we repeal it all in one fell swoop, as other states are doing,” Rep. Bret Roberts, R-Maricopa, wrote on Twitter. “However, I am happy to see we’re moving in that direction.”
Congressman Andy Biggs — who has drawn backlash for falsely claiming masks don’t curb COVID-19 transmission — noted he had “urged Arizona officials to fully reopen businesses, to give freedoms back to Arizonans and to allow our people to make the decisions that best suit them when it comes to their health, safety and well-being.”
State Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, applauded Ducey’s handling of the rollback, calling it “great news for Arizona that wouldn’t be possible without the mitigation/vaccination efforts the public has participated in.” And state Rep. Joanne Osborne, R-Goodyear, said she was “very happy for our businesses.”
Democratic senators posted a statement to Twitter calling the decision “deeply unfair to the workers who have no choice but to go to work in crowded businesses and still do not have the ability to get the vaccine.”
“We’ve thankfully been able to lower our COVID cases through our protocols, but this new order is another reckless decision from the governor that will lead to more loss of life and more people getting sick,” the statement said.
Breaking with both sides, Arizona Public Health Association Director Will Humble said the announcement was “really no big deal.”
Businesses have faced few consequences for violating capacity limits and other mitigation measures, the state’s former health director said, signaling that they didn’t have to follow safety rules in the first place.
“At least Director Christ and Gov. Ducey are finally being honest,” Humble said.