National Guard Troops help with COVID testing at the Santa Cruz County Complex July 25. 930 tests were performed the first weekend of testing. Photo courtesy Santa Cruz County In June, Santa Cruz County (SCC) experienced an extraordinary rate of infection and high positivity rate in testing, and became the county with the highest in […]
Aisha Sander
Posted inLocal News
County Has 3,000 Test Kits Left
By Aisha Sander Aug. 4, 2020 National Guard volunteers help administer PCR Swab tests for active COVID-19 infections in Patagonia on July 31, 2020. Photo credit: Robert Gay Santa Cruz County procured 5000 COVID-19 PCR test kits for the testing blitzes in Nogales, Rio Rico and Patagonia of which close to 2000 were used. The […]
Posted inCommunity
Contact Tracing in SCC
Fernando Silvas, chief epidemiologist for Santa Cruz County, oversees contact tracing for the county. Photo Credit: Fernando Silvas Contact tracing is one of the most important components of the public health response to COVID-19. For decades before the current crisis, tracers were tracking exposures during the HIV epidemic, for sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) and for […]
Posted inLocal News
Santa Cruz County Waiting on State Funds for Blitz
Despite having both the highest capita rate of infection and the highest positivity rate in testing in Arizona Santa Cruz County is still waiting on state funds to administer a testing blitz. Jeff Terrell, the Director of Health Services at the county, said “we have reached out to the state, we are not getting through […]
Posted inLocal News
Santa Cruz County Struggles with COVID-19 Outbreak
As of July 1st, Santa Cruz County has climbed to the highest in Arizona for rate of infection per capita (3389.7 per 100,000 population) and the highest test positivity rate of PCR Swab tests (28.3%). On June 2 the county reported 365 cases, seven hospitalizations and one death. As of July 1st there are 1823 […]
Posted inLocal News
Proclamation to Require Masks in Santa Cruz County
Read the Proclamation to Require Masks in Santa Cruz County Updated June 19, 2020 After a record week of COVID-19 cases in Arizona Gov. Ducey did not put a statewide order to require masks but instead amended his Executive Order to allow local governments to institute measures around face coverings on June 17, 2020. Bruce […]
Posted inLocal News
SC Humane Society In Danger of Closing
The Santa Cruz Humane Society (SCHS), the only animal shelter in the entire county, is in danger of shutting down. The pandemic has affected their funding dramatically and if they do not raise $50,000 they will have to close this year. Contributed Photo SCHS takes in animals that have been abandoned and rehabilitates them until […]
Posted inLocal News
Patagonia Residents Protest Racism and Police Brutality
The three organizers (from left) Hannah Woodard, Cosette Whitcoe, and Gianna Martin with their signs in Patagonia, AZ. Photo by Robert Gay Patagonia joined the long list of towns and cities that have been protesting racism and police brutality since the murder of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis at the hands of the […]
Posted inSchool News
Parades, Ceremonies Celebrate 2020 Grads
Arriana and Reyna Ochoa-Tovar share a smile as they parade through Patagonia with their classmates on May 22 before receiving their diplomas at an outdoor ceremony at Patagonia Union High School. Photo by Robert Gay Tyre Nevins rides in the back of a ranch truck, complete with congratulatory messages written in the coating of red dirt familiar […]
Posted inLocal News
PRT Survey on Reopening
COVID-19 is revealing divisions in our society. As one older woman from Elgin described when asked what she is most concerned about with the economy reopening, it is the “strange confusion of a society divided in responses to scientific vs political information.” Particularly the mask, a simple tool to limit (not prevent) the spread of […]