Trump Visit To Arizona Draws Concern

PHOENIX — When President Donald Trump takes to a church podium Tuesday at a campaign event organized by Turning Point Action, the conservative advocacy group based here, he will be visiting a very different Arizona from the one he last traveled to just six weeks ago.

This time around, the president is facing a spiking coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging the state with no signs of abating.

As of Monday night, Arizona had recorded 54,586 cases, a doubling of cases in just the last 15 days, and 1,342 deaths, according to NBC News’ tally.

The president will also visit Yuma on Tuesday morning to tour border wall construction operations. Two workers helping build the wall who live in the community of Ajo have contracted COVID-19, according to Aaron Pacheco, a spokesman for the Pima County Health Department.

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Tulsa, Oklahoma, prepares for Trump rally

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TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 19: A metal bust of U.S. President Donald Trump is on display outside the BOK Center as people line up to attend his campaign rally tomorrow June 19, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 19: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump sleep in the early morning while lined up to attend the Trump’s campaign rally near the BOK Center, site of tomorrow’s rally, June 19, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: A mural painted on the side of Mad Dog Liquors is shown June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre occurred in Tulsa in the year 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Children pose for photos in front of a mural painted on the side of Mad Dog Liquors June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre occurred in Tulsa in the year 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: A woman poses for photos in front of a mural marking Black Wall Street, also called the Greenwood District, June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre happened in 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: The Black Wall Street Massacre memorial is shown June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre happened in 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Tributes to George Floyd are laid at the base of a Black Wall Street mural, also called the Greenwood District, June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre happened in 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Children pose for a photo in front of a mural marking Black Wall Street, also called the Greenwood Distric, June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre happened in 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: People visit the memorial to the Black Wall Street Massacre June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Black Wall Street Massacre happened in 1921 and was one of the worst race riots in the history of the United States where more than 35 square blocks of a predominantly black neighborhood were destroyed in two days of rioting leaving between 150-300 people dead. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Trump 2020 face masks and other merchandise are shown for sale outside the BOK Center June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Keegan Smith wears a Trump 2020 face mask while waiting in line outside the BOK Center June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Nicholas Winford (L) debates a group of Trump supporters on the racial policies of U.S. President Donald Trump outside the BOK Center June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Trump supporters pose for photos with a giant Trump flag outside BOK Center, site of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

TULSA, OKLAHOMA – JUNE 18: Nicholas Winford (R) debates Trump supporter Randall Thom (L), on the racial policies of U.S. President Donald Trump outside the BOK Center June 18, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally since the start of the coronavirus pandemic at the BOK Center on Saturday while infection rates in the state of Oklahoma continue to rise. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Supporters of President Trump, including a man dressed as the border wall, line up outside outside an arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 18, 2020, where the president will hold his first campaign rally in months this weekend .Despite the heat, the ever-growing risk of coronavirus and a lukewarm reception from local officials, dozens of backers of Trump are already camped out outside the arena (AP photo/ Tom McCarthy)

FILE – In this Monday, June 15, 2020, file photo, a sign marks the intersection of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, the former home of Black Wall Street, in Tulsa, Okla. Black community leaders in Tulsa said they fear a large rally by President Donald Trump in the city this weekend could spark violence, and the state’s governor asked Trump not to visit the site of a race massacre where up to 300 black residents were killed by white mobs in 1921. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Shawn-Du Stackhouse, left, and Chelsea Guillory, right, pose for a photo at the Black Wall Street Memorial in Tulsa, Okla., Monday, June 15, 2020. For Stackhouse, a barber from the Washington, D.C. area and one of those visiting the Tulsa massacre memorials on this day, the proof that cell-phone videos provided of killings of African-Americans today somehow make the killings of the past, like Tulsa’s, more real as well. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Freeman Culver stands in front of a mural listing the names of businesses destroyed during the Tulsa race massacre in Tulsa, Okla., Monday, June 15, 2020, on the other side of what’s historically the city’s white-black dividing line from where President Donald Trump will rally Saturday. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, reversed his position on masks last week, allowing counties and cities to mandate them for residents if they choose. The governor relented after weeks during which numerous public health experts, doctors, mayors and county officials urged the move.

“We recommend that all Arizonans wear a face mask,” Ducey said at a news conference. “Whenever you cannot socially distance. At the grocery store. At the pharmacy. At the bank. When you’re on mass transit. We are going to change and update guidance so that local governments can implement mask and face covering policies so they can determine enforcement.”

Still, some localities say that as cases continue to rise to record levels in the state, they remain concerned about being able to procure adequate levels of certain items of personal protective and testing equipment. Others say that in this environment, the president’s visit itself represents a potential public health disaster.

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Dr. Joe Gerald, a professor of community, environment and policy at the University of Arizona, with an expertise in public health, told NBC News last week that the governor’s move was a “welcome step in what I would consider the right direction.” But he warned that Trump’s rally, set to be held at Dream City Church, which can hold thousands of people, could be a public health disaster waiting to happen.

“The last time President Trump visited Arizona, it prompted Ducey to quicken the pace of the reopening,” said Gerald, who has been publishing weekly white papers about the pandemic. “We were committed then to lifting the stay-at-home order on May 16. A lot of that seemed to be temporally related to President Trump’s visit. It’s always interesting and disruptive when President Trump visits. So who knows what this event holds in store?”

Over the weekend, there were major complications for many Arizonans seeking tests, with many waiting hours or being denied. Banner Health, the state’s largest hospital provider, turned away asymptomatic people, while another large urgent care provider said it could not turn test results around in under a week.

Arizonans also waited more than five hours at some testing locations, including NextCare Urgent Care facilities.

“We just can’t ramp up fast enough,” said Sonya Engle, chief operating officer of Sonora Quest Laboratories. “As we saw the demand increase, the prevalence went up.”

The governor said last week that he would call up the Arizona National Guard to ramp up contact tracing across the state, a task that has already been undertaken by members of the National Guard in other states, including Arkansas, Delaware, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.

Roughly 300 members of the Arizona National Guard are scheduled to work in coordination with the state Health Services Department, as well as the 15 county health departments, to assist with contact tracing.

However, while Ducey has encouraged all Arizonans to wear masks, he stopped short of ordering masks statewide, a step California Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed late last week. Other states, including Virginia and Massachusetts, have had similar orders for weeks.

In an interview last week, Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino said he personally knew at least half of the 12 people who have succumbed to the disease in his town of 20,000 people.

“Almost everybody in Nogales knows someone who has passed away or knows a family who is in quarantine,” he said.

Nogales is the county seat of Santa Cruz County, which as of Monday had 1,498 confirmed cases in a countywide population of about 40,000.

One of Arizona’s recent cases was that of Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who said Wednesday that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 at a White House screening just before he was set to meet the president. (Lamb notably said in early May that he would not enforce the state’s stay-at-home order, believing it to be unconstitutional.)

Meanwhile, Phoenix, the state’s capital, has not received any of the 1.74 million N95 masks that it has cumulatively ordered since the crisis began, and it does not expect the first masks to arrive until July. That is due to a combination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s diversion program, questionable suppliers that were unable to deliver adequate usable products and long delays in the conventional supply chain.

“We do not know precisely what happened with the supply chain, but there was a surge in demand for supply and heard from vendors there were issues with shipping goods from China,” Michael Hammett, a city spokesman, said last week by email.

Neither Dream City Church nor Turning Point Action responded to questions about COVID-19-related protocols during the president’s event.

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As with the president’s recent speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, attendees are being asked to sign liability waivers acknowledging that they will not hold the event host or the venue responsible if they contract the disease.

However, Turning Point Action does intend to comply with the city’s mask order, and it said it will distribute masks to those who do not have them.

The city of Phoenix has been in contact with the White House, Hammett said. “Our goal right now is to communicate the requirement to the public and educate on the importance of this public health mandate,” he said by email.

The White House declined to comment on what specific coronavirus-prevention protocols would be in place for the Phoenix event.

“The president takes the health and safety of everyone traveling in support of himself and all White House operations very seriously,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who represents part of Maricopa County, where health officials have acknowledged a rise in community spread of COVID-19, urged Trump supporters to “be responsible” as they converge on Dream City Church.

“We’re not going to try to ban the president from coming here, because I think it causes more problems, and not sure of the legality of it,” he said in an interview. “But for God’s sake, when you’re in that crowd and everyone is next to each other, please be responsible. Wear a mask.”

Vaughn Hillyard reported from Seattle and Phoenix, Cyrus Farivar from Oakland, California, and Monica Alba from Washington.

Trump visit to Arizona draws concern

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