06/20/2020

Facing a COVID-19 Resurgence and Unable to Act

Cases are going up, but lockdowns seem less realistic than ever

An alarming resurgence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is threatening to overwhelm America’s fifth-largest city, and its leaders aren’t allowed to do much about it.

“We’ve had elected officials who’ve not wanted to use the word crisis,” Phoenix, Arizona, Mayor Kate Gallego told me by phone earlier this week. “I am very comfortable telling the people of Phoenix, ‘We are in a crisis and you have to take this seriously.’”

Gallego, the Democrat who’s led Phoenix for the past year and a half, was being polite: She was referring to Arizona’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, who has downplayed a recent surge in COVID-19 cases that has made his state the new national hot spot for the pandemic. Arizona is now reporting an average of more than 1,500 cases a day, with rampant spread both in its urban centers, including Phoenix, and in rural areas.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Atlantic.