During Tuesday’s Policy Session, the city council discussed ongoing relief services that are meant to help city residents deal with the pandemic.
COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly in Phoenix with about 838 new cases per 100,000 residents. During the session, city officials said they are continuing relief efforts aimed at the most vulnerable.
Throughout the past year, and now within 2021, Phoenix has enacted several relief measures such as utility, rental or mortgage, assistance or distribution of laptops to both students and senior citizens.
“Fifteen different school districts and over 9,500 laptops have been made available,” Assistant City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. said. In addition, the city has distributed approximately 800 laptops or tablets to senior citizen centers.
Along with services, $29.2 million in funds were allocated to support rent, mortgage and utility assistance as well as food assistance and delivery services for Phoenix. According to
Deputy City Manager Jeff Barton, the city partnership with food delivery services and local foodbanks has distributed over 500,000 pounds of food to people.
Relief funding has also been put to use in community testing and is currently expected to last through June. However, the council said they will likely expand testing funds in response to the state of the pandemic.
“On December 8th, you allocated an additional $2 million, raising our total to $7.5 million to support community testing efforts,” Barton said to the council.
For COVID-19 testing, the city has utilized its mobile testing vans services and has administered testing to over 113,000 people in the city so far. Adding another wellness van that can make multiple day stops at a particular location three days per week has also increased testing.
“When we started with the initial van, the expectation was that we would test somewhere between 250 to 500 people per day, but we have been testing well over 1,000 people per day,” Dohoney Jr. said.
People can also receive rapid COVID-19 tests at Sky Harbor Airport, which has partnered with Xpress Test in order to provide rapid testing to travelers through the Phoenix airport. Vincere Cancer Center also functions as a static site for rapid COVID-19 tests.
As for vaccinations, the city has begun the priority stage of phase 1b which includes education and childcare providers, law enforcement and citizens over the age of 75.
“We are following the prioritization plan laid out by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health,” Human Resources Director Lori Bays said.
However, Bays also said that the prioritization levels have changed since people aged 65 and over are able to be vaccinated before essential workers.
“Our essential worker group has been moved one step down in our prioritization,” Bays said. But Mayor Kate Gallego said that first responders, folks who work in childcare, park rangers, and others are also receiving vaccines.
Residents within the proper priority groups can apply through the state in order to receive the vaccine. To conclude the session, council members maintained that they would continue to attempt to combat the issues of the pandemic for the residents of Phoenix.
“I am hoping to continue to flatten the curve and to continue to serve our constituents,” City Council Member Betty Guardado said.
Contact the reporter at emrosale@asu.edu.
