Sedona City Manager Justin Clifton’s COVID-19 update to the Sedona City Council was kind of a “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news — which do you want first?” feel to it.
Clifton said for the most part numbers across the state have somewhat plateaued, however, “there’s indications of subtle worsening. But more or less things have continued as they have for the last number of weeks.”
As of Wednesday, Oct. 14, Yavapai County had seen 2,738 positive cases of COVID while Coconino County was at 4,583. Statewide, there were 227,635 positive results. There have also been 86 COVID-related deaths in Yavapai County since the pandemic began.
Since mid-August, the state’s rate of positive testing has remained steady at 4%, which is down from 12% in July.
Clifton noted that hospitalization in intensive care units has slowly increased in recent weeks statewide.
“It’s not a real pronounced trend at this point but something to watch carefully, especially as we head into the colder months and the flu season,” he said.
The total number of cases in the Sedona area, which includes the Village of Oak Creek, is around 150. Clifton said while it’s not a competition, these numbers are fewer than Cottonwood, which has around 300 cases, and Camp Verde’s 170.
“Some of this could be circumstantial but the good news is that despite slightly less participation in mask wearing, despite continued opening of businesses and despite going into a busy season of tourism, we still see very slow transmission,” Clifton said. “That’s a good thing. But people should interpret that as ‘keep it up’ and not ‘we’re in the clear.’”
From the economic side of the pandemic, advertising and promotion of the area by the Sedona Chamber of Commerce has continued to be on hold. However, it will soon begin to target Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Diego for the slower winter months.
Weekly hotel occupancy has hovered around the 70% mark for the past month, which is down 8% compared to the same time last year. However, the average daily hotel room rate is up 10% over that same time.
As for city finances and operations, Clifton said June sales taxes were better than expected but July’s was down slightly. August figures are still being finalized but he said they’re up.
“The general good news is, we’re certainly outperforming our model,” he said, adding that some of the remaining frozen city positions will be reopened in the upcoming weeks. “The financial outlook is very positive and better than we expected.”
