Arizona governor orders bars, theaters, gyms to close for 30 days
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Doug Ducey. Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced at a press conference Monday that he is ordering bars, clubs, movie theaters, waterparks and gyms to close for 30 days in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Why it matters: Arizona, which has reported more than 3,000 new cases in five of the last seven days, is one of several states that has been forced to put its reopening plans on pause as the outbreak has accelerated across the Sun Belt.
Details: Ducey also said that an executive order going into effect at midnight would ban organized events of more than 50 people and push back the first day of school for in-person learning until Aug. 17.
- Ducey last week urged residents to stay home and observe social distancing, but he declined until now to reverse the state's reopening, per the Arizona Republic.
- "We're not going back to normal anytime soon," Ducey said, pointing to the "brutal facts of our current situation today."
The big picture: Florida and Texas — two of the other U.S. hotspots — ordered new restrictions on bars last week, while New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that he would indefinitely postpone indoor dining after seeing the effects of reopening in other states.
Between the lines: Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News on Sunday that even aggressive action in virus hotspots won't show effects for weeks, so Americans should expect case numbers to continue to climb.
- "Look at New York. New York implemented the stay-at-home order on March 20, it was a Friday. It went into effect on Sunday. They peaked in terms of the number of daily cases that they were reporting on April 7," Gottlieb said.
- "So almost three weeks after they implemented the stay-at-home order, the cases continued to build and then they started to slowly decline."
Go deeper: U.S. coronavirus hotspots failed to build up public health tools
