Mohave County, Arizona is a mecca for Donald Trump supporters.
Located in the northwest corner of the state, Mohave County is considered the most conservative in the state.
President Trump won 73 percent of the vote here in 2016, compared with 22 percent for Hillary Clinton.
It was the most lopsided Trump victory in Arizona, and Trump’s third best county in the country.
But Trump’s repeated downplay of COVID-19 hasn’t slowed the reality that numbers are rising.
Six new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Mohave County on Monday.
The Mohave County Department of Public Health says there are 510 confirmed cases, with 115 test results pending.
There have been over 60 deaths.
Most alarming for this area, younger patients are testing positive for the coronavirus.
Of the county’s 510 confirmed cases, 88 are under the age of 30 and another 148 are between the ages of 30 and 49.
Schools are set to open next month.
And there is no sign the constant 100 degree weather is doing anything to slow the virus down.
In response, the mayor of Bullhead City Tom Brady has announced he’s closing all beaches, boat launches and associated parks on the weekends through Labor Day.
Brady issued an emergency proclamation yesterday about the closures on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Most parks will be open to the public Mondays through Thursdays in the northwestern Arizona city along the Colorado River.
That will allow locals to have some enjoyment of the lake, but it will have a negative effect on the tourism economy.
Community Park, the Colorado River Nature Center and Sunshine Marina will be closed entirely.
All beaches will be closed at Rotary Park, and gates and fencing will be installed to prevent beach and boat launch access.
Brady said out-of-towners crowded Bullhead City’s beaches last weekend at “unacceptable levels.”
He said noncompliance and overcrowding are not acceptable in trying to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The other tourist community in the county, Lake Havasu City, has not yet closed its beaches.
But city officials are no doubt keeping a close eye on the numbers.
Trump yesterday said he disagrees with the assessment of the country’s top immunologist, Anthony Fauci, on the dire situation the United States faces as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to spread.
“The current state is really not good,” the highly respected Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Monday.
“We are still knee deep in the first wave” of COVID-19 infections,” he said.
Trump, speaking yesterday in a TV interview, disagreed with Fauci, a key player on the White House’s own Coronavirus Task Force.
“I think we are in a good place,” Trump said adding “I disagree with him.”
But the president didn’t offer any medical or scientific data to back up his claims.
The United States has fared poorly in its handling of the pandemic, with more than 130,000 people losing their lives, the highest death toll in the world by far.
Currently there is a surge of cases in the south and the west after regional officials began to relax restrictions.