PATAGONIA WAITING ON GOVERNOR FOR GUIDANCE ON REOPENING

By Hilde Kate Lysiak

April 22, 2020

Patagonia is waiting on orders from the governor to reopen the town as other states have already begun moving to reopen their economies.

Town Manager Ronald Robinson told the Orange Street News.”We are waiting for the Governor to either amend his Executive Order 2020-18 or give us some time frame on how and what to do since we are in uncharted waters.”

The lock down order for Arizona is set expire on May 30th. Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina are all states that have started reopening their economy.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey told media yesterday that he’s not ready to end to the statewide stay-at-home order, but he will allow hospitals to resume elective surgeries on May 1.

Governor Ducey refused to comment to the Orange Street News..

There are between 1-5 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Patagonia’s 85624 zip code, according to data published on Sunday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

A statement with the new information read – “Today we added data to our COVID-19 dashboard that includes additional information about cases and deaths, as well as information about the health of our healthcare system in Arizona. The dashboard now has case counts broken down by zip code and more detailed demographic information about cases and deaths in our state.”

Recently local health officials refused to reveal if there were any confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Patagonia, leading to rumors and speculation from residents.  

At the Patagonia Health Clinic, a worker first told the OSN that the law prevents them from giving the people information.

When pressed as to what specific law would being broken by revealing general information for the community about how many people have the virus, the worker said, “I honestly don’t know what the rule is or if anybody has it. We don’t know. But we are being told by the people ahead of us that we can’t say. I don’t know why, but my guess is that no one wants people to panic.”

There are now 29 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Santa Cruz County.

Patagonia is in Santa Cruz County which includes Nogales, Rio Rico, Sonoita, and Patagonia. In 2010 the population of Santa Cruz County was 47,420 people according to the census. The Nogales International was first to report on the map.