PHOENIX – Gov Doug Ducey took the first step in re-opening Arizona’s economy Wednesday, when he announced the resumption of elective surgeries.
“If you’re looking for a headline today, that headline would be elective surgeries have resumed in Arizona effective May 1. The stay home order remains in effect. More to follow,” Ducey said during a press conference.
Ducey said the option to perform elective surgeries would only be open to hospitals and surgery centers that can demonstrate capacity.
He said the state now has suffient diagnostic tests and will be ramping up those tests, plus, with the help of the University of Arizona, about 250,000 antibody tests will soon be made available to determine who may have previously contracted COVID-19 and recovered without know they had the virus.
He said each decision made by the state to limit or close businesses and recreational areas was “guided by the public health,” and he didn’t want to see increases in positive cases occur because the state moved too quickly lifting those restrictions.
“When we headed into this pandemic, our state was the strongest state economically in the nation. If we do this right, and we do it responsibly and properly, we can be the strongest state in the nation leading out of this pandemic,” Ducey said.
