Adding up sequential steps needed to open Sun City West, I came up with eight weeks from today, or roughly a July opening for rec centers and chartered clubs.
The following is from today’s press release from Recreation Centers of Sun City West General Manager Bill Schwind. Basically, due to average age of a Sun City West resident and likelihood of a pre-existing condition that increases risk of mortality with COVID-19 among our community, Sun City West is erring on side of caution and will one later than Gov. Doug Ducey’s Arizona general guidelines.
“There has been some confusion that chartered clubs will reopen as well on Monday. That is not the case. The rec centers is working on a recovery and reopening plan for its other facilities. However, reopening even under the plan with restrictions in place, will follow the federal ‘Opening Up America Again’ approach, which requires a downward trajectory of COVID cases over a 14-day period.”
Gov. Ducey announced a testing blitz, which aims to test 10,000-20,000 Arizonans every Saturday for three consecutive weeks, beginning May 2. “We can expect to see our numbers increase after that date,” said Mr. Schwind. “But that doesn’t explain the leap in cases we saw last weekend before the blitz began.”
Sun City West’s ZIP code saw a jump from “6-10” cases on April 26 to 45 on April 27. There are 47 reported as of today. There is a reported 4-7 day lag time between testing and reporting, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services website. I’m disappointed as I used the rec gyms daily. Based on this news report I decided to seek summer citizen housing in Utah. I thought other residents of Sun City West that have been playing a waiting game on get-out-of town trips will want this information. I now know there will be no rec centers or activities here in the community for next two months.
