On Thursday, March 19, the first individual in Yavapai County, a Sedona man in his 70s, tested positive for COVID-19. Since then, two more cases have been confirmed in Yavapai County, another in Sedona and one in Prescott.
According to officials at Yavapai County Community Health Services, while the county is trying to ramp up testing in order to track the spread of the virus, the testing regime is still under- equipped, with testing only available on a limited basis, focused on those who have shown COVID-19 symptoms.
“We can’t test them until they develop symptoms because we’re just short on kits,” Stephen Everett, section manager for communicable diseases at YCCHS, said. “What we do is we track down the contacts of the person and have them go into voluntary quarantine.”
“The labs are starting to test,” Everett said. “Unfortunately, they have a very small supply of testing kits. That’s where the bottleneck is.”
Testing in the Verde Valley is available at Spectrum Healthcare, Northern Arizona Healthcare’s Verde Valley Medical Center and the Community Health Center of Yavapai County in Cottonwood.
At press time on Monday, March 23, there were 234 confirmed cases of COVID- 19 in Arizona, with 139 in Maricopa County, 24 in Pima, 17 in Pinal, 17 in Coconino, 25 in Navajo, four in Apache, three in Yavapai, two in Graham and one in Yuma.
By the time the first case was confirmed, Yavapai County had already declared
a state of emergency, giving Yavapai County Board of Supervisors Chairman Craig Brown the power to govern by proclamation, with options including imposing curfews, ordering business closures, closing access to public places and calling upon law enforcement agencies within the county for assistance.
According to District 3 Supervisor Randy Garrison, the county was not at this point implementing these more extreme measures, leaving it to individual municipalities to go beyond the county, with businesses remaining mostly open in unincorporated areas of Yavapai County, though people are advised to avoid large gatherings or close contact with others.
New guidelines from Gov. Doug Ducey imposed restrictions anyway, making the county’s decision moot.
Municipalities in the Verde Valley went beyond the county advisory, with Sedona, Cottonwood, Clarkdale and Camp Verde having all declared their own states of emergency.
On March 18, Sedona closed all restaurants, gyms and bars, and on Friday, Cottonwood joined it.
“At this time, I am asking everyone to do their part in helping suppress the spread of this virus,” Cottonwood Mayor Tim Elinski wrote in a letter to constituents on Friday, coinciding with the decision to close restaurants and bars. “Health officials both in our community and across the globe have advised us that the best course of action is to slow the spread by remaining socially distant from others and staying home if we are feeling unwell. In times of uncertainty it is natural for us to want to congregate, but with this virus being so communicable, it is critical we keep our distance as this disease is very dangerous to our most vulnerable.
“We recognize that among the most vulnerable are those age 65 and up in our community, but everyone is a potential carrier of this virus, including many who don’t have symptoms. For this reason, I expect younger residents to responsibly abide by the same rules to keep those most vulnerable safe. If we can suppress the virus and contain its spread immediately, we are much more likely to recover quickly. For a link to the specific guidelines I ask everyone to follow, please see the CDC website or visit Cottonwood’s website for links.”
Throughout Arizona, restaurants are still permitted to serve take-out and drive- through food as long as food is not being consumed on the premises.
The Camp Verde Town Council declared a state of emergency at a meeting on Wednesday, March 18.
“Things are moving so rapidly,” Camp Verde Mayor Charlie German said. “It’s going to give an opportunity to have more tools in our tool box, which we need.”
Town Manager Russ Martin discussed the possibility of making future town council meetings virtual in order to prevent a large gathering of people and the risk of spreading the disease. Though Martin had indicated on Monday of last week an intention to cut some items from the council agenda for the March 18 meeting, such as an employee recognition presentation for members of the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office, the town did not do so, and council chambers were nearly full due to the large group of CVMO officers there for it.
“A good portion of this room probably has the virus,” Martin said at Wednesday’s meeting, based on information he had gleaned from discussions with U.S. Tom O’Halleran [D-District 1]. “Most of you may not know and most of you may not even get tested. But understand there’s a reason why all of this relative panic is reasonable to do. We want you to protect yourself because the numbers are multiplying …. Once those test kits are getting out the numbers are going to change dramatically and you’re going to be very surprised at how many people actually have the virus or are dealing with it, including maybe yourself. So be really, really respectful of the required limits.”
Camp Verde town services are mostly continuing to the best of employees’ abilities, though for the most part, direct in-person interaction with town staff has been halted. The Camp Verde Community Library has been closed to the public starting at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 23. Staff will be providing curb-side pick up and returns at the library, allowing individuals to reserve books or other materials online or via phone and drive to the parking lot to pick them up without going inside.
In Clarkdale, the town council announced at a meeting on Thursday, March 19, their intention to allow restaurants and bars to remain open in a limited capacity, with provisions in place to ensure safety as much as possible.
“They are still hosting people in their buildings,” Clarkdale Town Manager Tracie Hlavinka said at the meeting. “We have gone in and looked at seating ratios that they have. They have made sure that that social distancing is definitely in compliance.”
Clarkdale officials indicated that if cases were confirmed in Clarkdale itself, they may go farther on restrictions.
In Cottonwood, all city facilities, such as the Cottonwood Recreation Center and city offices, have been closed to the public. The library is barring visitors but is still continuing to provide digital services to residents and is allowing members to reserve items online or via phone, drive to the library and receive books or other items from librarians curb-side.
Local nonprofits are continuing to provide services to low income residents in the area, with additional precautions such as requiring gloves for staff handing out food, which is encouraged to be taken to-go, and increasing hygiene regimens. Organizations are, however, finding that the crisis is leading to increased difficulty in helping the area’s least fortunate.
“The past two weeks we have seen a significant drop in donations from the grocery stores,” Kellie Wilson, executive director of the Old Town Mission in Cottonwood, wrote in an email. “In a typically week we could receive 2,500 pounds of meat. This week it was around 100 pounds To keep feeding the hungry in our community we have ordered canned goods, cereal, peanut butter and other staples that we will use to prepare pre-pack- aged food boxes for our clients. These extra expenses were not accounted for so the best way for people to help us now is financially, which would help cover the cost of these extra food orders we have started making.”
“We are having great difficulty in obtaining cleaning supplies, coffee, sugar, water, peanut butter, jelly and paper products such as paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, bowls and plastic ware,” wrote Carol Quasula, interim director of the Verde Valley Homeless Coalition. “We are running low on disposable razors, toothpaste, women’s hygiene products. We are also struggling to keep volunteers as many of them are seniors and in the high-risk category. We need healthy individuals to volunteer to serve your transition center Monday through Friday and assist our guests — also to help to clean the center and organize supplies and clothing.”
According to Everett, social distancing is the best hope the area has to ensure that the few cases that have been identified do not balloon into a widespread outbreak. He noted that if cases start to increase, the health care system could be overwhelmed, meaning that individuals who would be able to be saved by medical care will not be able to get it. This could apply to illnesses beyond the virus as well.
“It’s not so much the coronavirus that’s killing them. It’s not getting supportive care they would have gotten if it wasn’t so crowded,” Everett said.
According to Trista MacVittie, chief experience and communication officer at Northern Arizona Healthcare, Verde Valley Medical Center has 91 beds, with an average of 57 patients on a given day.
According to Everett, one of the major risks of the virus is that it will inevitably affect health care workers as well, limiting the health system’s ability to respond. The hospital is limiting visiting policies in order to reduce the potential spread of the virus.
Everett said that in this time of crisis, a large danger is the potential for people to not take the warnings seriously. He pointed to the United States’ individualistic culture, which often serves us so well, as a difficulty that can make fighting a pandemic, which requires shared sacrifice, harder.
“The most worrisome thing is people not taking this seriously,” Everett said. “As the numbers increase, that will go away.”
