Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.
At about 6 PM today Governor Ducey announced closures in Maricopa, Pinal, Coconino, Navajo and Graham counties, all of which have confirmed cases of CoronaVirus. The Executive Order requires restaurants to provide dine-out services only and they can deliver your favorite alcoholic beverage along with your meal. He also closed movie theaters, gyms and bars.
The Order preserves Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for those providers and facilities that are dealing with the virus; delays expiration dates on driver licenses and stops all elective surgeries. He is activating the National Guard to help grocery stores and food banks, all of which are dealing with a surge in demand.
All of this takes effect tomorrow, Friday, March 20th at the close of business. Congratulations to the Governor. I publicly thank him for taking this action to protect the health and safety of all Arizona residents. I stand behind him 100%. I applaud his action and will do whatever is required to assist him as Arizona works its way through this national emergency. Well done! Thank you!
Arizona now has 44 confirmed cases. The number remains low as there are not a lot of testing kits available. As they become more plentiful we will see that number rise dramatically. I found a neat site to which I direct your attention. It is www.ncov2019.live . It was developed by a teenager and has quickly become a “go to” site for up-to-date numbers on CoronaVirus, worldwide by country and state by state in the United States. I try to check it once in the morning and once at night.
All grocery stores are providing senior hours to shop. This morning I took my 90 year old brother-in-law to a local Safeway to pick up some basics. I was shocked. There was no bread. There was no margarine. The only meats available were the high priced, very lean hamburger at $4.99 a pound and the most expensive cuts of beef such as steak. No staples like rice or beans unless you wanted to pay $5 for some exotic box of rice you’ve never heard of. They did have 5# bags of potatoes (one to a customer) but no Kraft Mac n Cheese. There wasn’t even a single can of Chef Boyardee spaghetti. In fact, there were no pasta products to be had. Forget sanitizing products. I could go on but you get the picture.
Has everyone’s family suddenly ballooned to 20 members? The hoarding has become unsustainable and mind boggling. Maybe it’s time to limit the quantity of ordinary items such as these, to two per customer. I wish everyone would get a grip and start to think of others and their needs as well. Needless to say my brother-in-law filled about half a dozen items on his list. Looks like another trip will be necessary…maybe in about a week. Hopefully, the panic buying will have subsided.
© Joyce Clark, 2020
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