As COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket, Gov. Doug Ducey has ordered the closing of bars, gyms, movie theaters, water parks and river tubing activities for at least one month.
Ducey also said Arizona would delay the start of the school year to Aug. 17.
Ducey warned that Arizonans will see more cases of COVID-19 before the numbers begin to decrease.
“Our expectation is, our numbers will be worse,” said Ducey, who repeated his call for Arizonans to mask up when in public, stay home as much as possible, wash their hands and keep a physical distance from others.
The Department of Health will also activate its “crisis standards of care” and cancel non-emergency surgeries.
Ducey's new moves come as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Arizona crossed the 74,000 threshold as of Monday, June 29, after the state reported 625 new cases this morning, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
That said, Arizona Department of Health Services tweeted earlier this morning that not all new cases are reflected in this total, and that a higher number is to be expected tomorrow because of this.
Pima County had seen 7,568 of the state's 74,533 confirmed cases.
Cases in Arizona have more than tripled since June 1, when the state had 20,123 confirmed cases.
A total of 1,588 people have died after contracting the virus, including 268 in Pima County.
Maricopa County has more than half the state's cases, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hitting 45,178.
This morning's Arizona Department of Health Services report shows that as of yesterday, 2,721 Arizonans were hospitalized, more than double the 1,009 hospitalized on June 1.
A total of 992 people arrived at emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms on June 28. Previous to June, the number of people seeking help in emergency rooms never topped 667.
A total of 679 COVID-19 patients were in ICU beds yesterday.
More details to come.