By Lily Altavena | Arizona Republic
The spread of COVID-19 has slowed enough for schools in 10 Arizona counties, including in metro Phoenix, to reopen for in-person classes under state health recommendations.
The benchmarks, which use the level of COVID-19 spread as the barometer for safely reopening school buildings, show that the state’s two most populated counties —Maricopa and Pima — meet the health benchmarks.
Ten out of 15 Arizona counties are cleared to reopen under the benchmarks, which are updated on Thursdays. That means in the counties that met the benchmarks:
The number of COVID-19 cases has declined for two consecutive weeks or the rate of cases has been lower than 100 cases per 100,000.
The infection rate has been below 7% for two consecutive weeks.
Hospital visits for COVID-like illnesses have remained below 10% for two consecutive weeks.
