PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Sunday afternoon that he was following new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that large-scale events, such as festivals, concerts, and weddings, should be canceled or postponed.
"This recommendation does not apply to the day to day operation of organizations such as institutes of higher learning or businesses and applies to events of 50 people or more," Ducey said in his tweet.
Arizona is following @CDCgov's new guidance that large events and mass gatherings be cancelled. Examples of large events and mass gatherings include conferences, festivals, parades, concerts, sporting events, weddings & other types of assemblies. See more: https://t.co/iLVOk6mixL
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) March 15, 2020
Moments later, Ducey and Superintendent Kathy Hoffman also announced that all schools in Arizona would be closed from Monday, March 16 to Friday, March 27, 2020 because of the concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19.
Since last week, several school districts had already made the decision to close. Numerous events, festivals and sporting events in Arizona, including Spring Training, had already announced their decisions to cancel or postpone.
According to the CDC's website, the CDC is actually recommending events and festivals be canceled or postponed for the next eight weeks.
"Events of any size should only be continued if they can be carried out with adherence to guidelines for protecting vulnerable populations, hand hygiene, and social distancing. When feasible, organizers could modify events to be virtual," the CDC said on its website.
"This recommendation is made in an attempt to reduce introduction of the virus into new communities and to slow the spread of infection in communities already affected by the virus," the CDC said.
