Juan Reyes Ramirez
Phoenix, Arizona
2 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Arizona governor: ‘Stay home only if you are feeling sick’

People were going in and out, making their necessary purchases at the local Fry’s Marketplace. I would have thought that more people would be staying home, but the number of people in the store was like any other day before COVID-19.

Although some states such as California and New York have enforced curfews or isolation, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has encouraged people to stay home only if they are feeling sick.

As a result, people have still been going out and living a somewhat normal life. Social distancing is still being advised.

When I walked in at Fry’s, there was a sign by the entrance that was not there last week encouraging people to stay six feet from each other, but there was no one really enforcing this.

Last week, I went to Costco, where blue tape on the floor by the cash registers enforced the six-feet policy when waiting in line. An employee would also guide people to the lines and space the people out if they were beginning to get too close.

As I walked up and down the aisles, toilet paper and water were completely gone. The only time when toilet paper and water are available is during the morning when the marketplace opens at 6 a.m. Both water and toilet paper might last a maximum of three hours on the shelves.

What stores have recently done is make a time frame when elderly people could be given an hour to make their necessary purchases without the pressure of possibly having younger and more frantic people taking an excessive amount of toilet paper or water.

I think this is a good idea because some people forget that the demographic that is very vulnerable to this virus are our elders.

Click on another area to read more of our correspondent’s blogs: