Tucson Standard

Non-essential businesses were ordered to close on March 27 in Tucson, Arizona, to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. 

Mayor Regina Romero announced the order, which will temporarily close all non-essential businesses as outlined in Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive order from earlier in the week. They will remain closed until April 17, AZ Central reported.

“We cannot afford to wait any longer; COVID-19 is not waiting and neither can we,” Romero said in a statement. 

Businesses that will close in Tucson will be in line with Ducey’s order, but Romero is also suggesting that barbershops, spas and hair and nail salons close as well. 

In the executive order issued by the governor, “personal hygiene services” were considered an essential business. 

Romero said these businesses have a lot of close human-to-human contact and are “not in fact critical or essential during this pandemic emergency," Eastern Arizona Courier reported. She recommended that personal hygiene services close, because they conflict with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on practicing social distancing, AZ Central reported. 

Other essential services defined by Ducey's executive order are health care, grocery stores, media organizations, airlines, gas stations, banks, mail service, pet care and more, AZ Central reported. 

While Romero didn’t issue a stay-at-home order, she suggests that residents stay home unless they have “essential needs,” such as grocery shopping or prescriptions. 

"If Gov. Ducey is unwilling to take decisive action at the state level, then he needs to untie the hands of local jurisdictions and allow us to make decisions that are best for our individual communities,” Romero said in her statement.

As of Friday, April 3, Pima County currently has 280 cases of COVID-19, the City of Tucson said. There has also been 31 deaths due to the coronavirus in the county. The number of cases continues to grow and Romero said she hopes closing non-essential businesses will help stop the spread.