Briefs | Pima County board member proposes indoor masking mandate

TUCSON – A member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors wants to help curb the spread of the coronavirus by imposing a countywide mandate for people to wear mask while inside indoor public places and cannot easily social distance.

A resolution proposed by Supervisor Matt Heinz has been added to Tuesday's meeting agenda.

Heinz said that the pandemic is at “a critical moment" and that the lack of a masking mandate would hurt businesses because people may stop patronizing local businesses.

The omicron variant “has already been identified in Pima County, and people are looking for assurances that it remains safe to go about their lives," Heinz wrote Thursday in a memo.

In another development, state health officials on Saturday reported 3,467 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 29 more deaths.

It increased Arizona’s pandemic totals to 1,334,067 cases and 23,516 deaths.

Nobody injured in Downtown Phoenix apartment explosion

PHOENIX – Police and fire investigators are searching for the cause of a fire and potential explosion at an apartment complex in downtown Phoenix. Nobody was seriously injured.

Authorities say there was no active smoke or fire when firefighters arrived Friday afternoon, but the door and windows were blown out of a second-story apartment.

Only one unit was damaged. Firefighters checked out the tenant who declined to be taken to a hospital. The tenant said he left his apartment for a few minutes when he heard a loud noise.

Crews evacuated the entire 15-unit building, displacing about 30 people.