Arizona defines “essential services” and precludes local governments from closing essential businesses or issuing stay-at-home orders that interfere with the operation of essential businesses.

On March 23, Governor Ducey issued Executive Order 2020-12 as part of an ongoing response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The order prohibits counties, cities, and towns from closing businesses that perform “essential services” during the crisis.

In addition, any local order that restricts the ability to leave home shall be consistent with advice from the Arizona Department of Health Services and must be coordinated with the state.

According to the governor’s news release, the order is designed to ensure “consistent guidance across the state” and that “the state has one consistent, overarching policy that is based on CDC and public health guidance—allowing business owners and workers to responsibly plan ahead.”

The order broadly defines an “essential” service as “a function that promotes the public health, safety and welfare of the state” and includes an incredibly extensive but non-exhaustive list of essential services:

• Healthcare and Public Health Operations. This includes but is not limited to hospitals, doctors, nurses, clinics, dental offices, pharmacies, medical device and equipment companies, blood organizations, eye care centers, home health service providers, mental health and substance use providers, and medical supply companies (including cleaning and sanitizing products). The category is to be “construed broadly to avoid any impacts to the delivery of healthcare,” but it expressly excludes fitness and exercise gyms.
• Human Services Operations. This includes but is not limited to long-term care facilities, residential shelters for seniors, children, or people with disabilities, rehabilitation centers, transitional facilities, development centers, field offices that help provide for basic needs (including food, cash assistance, medical coverage, and child care and vocational services), adoption and foster care agencies, and other businesses that provide food, shelter, social services, and other necessities of life for disadvantaged or vulnerable people. The category is to be “construed broadly to avoid any impacts to the delivery of human services.”
• Essential Infrastructure Operations. This includes but is not limited to food production, distribution, and sales, construction, building management and maintenance, landscape management, operation and management of public utilities, roads, railways, and public transportation, cybersecurity, waste removal and recycling, and telecommunications and internet providers. This category is to be “construed broadly to avoid any impacts to essential infrastructure.”
• Essential Government Functions. This includes but is not limited to park facilities and personnel that provide outdoor recreation, first responders, emergency dispatchers, court personnel, law enforcement and correctional officers, CPS personnel, and housing and shelter personnel. This category means all services provided by the state and any political subdivision thereof (including government contractors) that are needed to ensure continuing governmental operations and to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Each political subdivision must determine its essential functions and ensure a plan is in place to perform these functions.
• Essential Businesses and Operations. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Stores of any kind that sell groceries, medicine, pet supplies, alcohol, and other non-grocery products that are necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation, and essential operations of residences and other essential businesses
  • Food and beverage manufacturers, producers, processors, and cultivators, and businesses that provide food, shelter, and other necessities for animals (including shelters, rescues, kennels, and adoption facilities)
  • Restaurants and other food providers, but only for off-site consumption
  • Gas stations, auto-supply and auto-repair stores, truck stops, and bicycle shops
  • Post offices and other shipping and delivery businesses
  • Hotels
  • Laundromats and dry cleaners
  • Transportation services, including airlines, taxis, and ridesharing providers (Lyft and Uber)
  • Professional service providers, including attorneys, accountants, insurance companies, real estate professionals (including appraisal and title service providers), and personal hygiene service providers
  • Financial institutions, banks, credit unions, consumer lenders, appraisers, title companies, pawnbrokers, entities that issue bonds, and institutions that sell financial products
  • Building and construction tradesworkers, including plumbers, electricians, exterminators, cleaning personnel for commercial properties, security, HVAC service providers, painters, movers, and other service providers that are necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation, and essential operation of residences and other essential services
  • Newspapers, television, radio, and other media services
  • Hardware stores and businesses that sell electrical, plumbing, and heating materials
  • Any outdoor recreation area, park, site, or trail that provides for outdoor recreating with social distancing, including golf courses as long as other restrictions on the sale of food and beverages are followed
  • Educational institutions, except that public school are to remain closed through April 10
  • Churches and organizations that provide charitable and social services, including food banks
  • Home-based care providers for adults, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, including caregivers and nannies
  • Residential facilities and shelters
  • Businesses that sell supplies to work from home
  • Businesses that sell goods necessary for other essential service providers, including computers, electronics, household appliances, telecommunication equipment, hardware, paint, glass, electrical, heating and cooling material, sanitary equipment, personal hygiene products, food, medical equipment, photography equipment, soaps and detergents, and firearm and ammunition suppliers and retailers
  • Day care providers for individuals serving in any essential services category
  • Companies in the distribution and supply chain necessary for essential service providers
• On April 3, Gov. Ducey announced additional guidance on the list of essential services. The following businesses and amenities are not considered essential services and must cease operations consistent with the Stay-at-Home mandate in Executive Order 2020-18:
  • Barbers, cosmetology and hairstyling salons, nail salons, aesthetic salons, tanning salons, tattoo parlors, spas, massage therapists
  • Amenities at public parks that do not allow for recommended physical distancing, such as basketball courts, splash pads, playgrounds, and public restrooms – but public parks should remain open to the greatest extent possible.
  • Communal pools at hotels, condominiums, apartments, and parks.
  • Swap meets.
• Additional essential services may be added from time to time, as maintained on the governor’s website.
• The order does not preclude employers from encouraging or mandating telework options.
• All state and local agencies must update their list of essential services to conform to the order.