By Janet Perez
Mail | Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

Florence has terminated its emergency pandemic order, which went into place on March 18, 2020.

The decision was made during the Monday, May 2, Florence Town Council meeting.

While the emergency order has been repealed, the town will continue to promote policies that promote employee wellness, and the COVID-19 Family and Medical Leave Act will remain.

“We're able to put forward this and we're hopeful we will continue to watch the health concerns that are related, and we will continue to ask our employees if you're sick stay home,” said interim Town Manager Lisa Garcia. “We want everybody at the workplace to be healthy and we want to make sure that we are doing the best we can for our employees, but we are happy to end the emergency and open our businesses permanently.”

Gov. Doug Ducey ended the coronavirus pandemic-related state of emergency on March 30. The state of emergency was issued more than two years ago on March 11, 2020, in response to the coronavirus that was beginning to spread in the community.

According to a staff report, “although the emergency declaration has ended, the announcement says the governor and (Arizona Department of Health Services) encourage Arizonans to get vaccinated and to continue to take preventative measures including staying home when sick and continuous testing.

“The town will follow the state of Arizona by lifting the emergency proclamation but keeping in place the protections for the employees based on Pinal County Department of Health. We will also leave in place policies that were adopted to protect employees, such as the Covid-19 Sick Leave Donation Policy that allows employees to donate sick or vacation leave to those who are out on [FMLA] due to a COVID-19 Illness.”