Jandy Vasquez and her family have never taken the risk of COVID-19 lightly.
Since the outbreak, she and her family have been following guidelines released by state and federal leaders to avoid getting sick.
"We wear masks, we are sanitizing everything, we’ve been doing the online orders just really trying to keep safe you know?”
Her husband has still been asked to report to work, so she didn't hesitate when he reported a fever last week. She started searching for places the whole family could be tested.
"Every CVS around us for 20 miles was booked for four days, and the results were going to take ten days," Vasquez added.
So, they drove to their home state of New Mexico, where it only took four days to get their results. To her surprise, they all tested positive.
"I've been doing my part, what’s the disconnect here?" she asked. "How am I supposed to protect my child? We already have it and I thought we were, no, we were doing all the right things and all three of us still got it somehow.”
Long before getting tested though, Vasquez, a teacher for Maricopa County's Head Start Program, had major concerns about going back to school.
“I just didn’t think it was safe to go back in the workforce right away," she said." I didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel like enough people were taking precautions for me to be out there."
Even more concerning, her four-year-old son's health.
"How am I gonna throw him in a classroom with all those other kids and risk it?" she added. "I know that teachers and the staff will make their best efforts but there’s no telling.”
Vasquez says it's a reminder, even taking every precaution isn't a guarantee you'll avoid catching the virus.
Still, she believes stricter rules statewide could have better-protected families like hers.
"There’s been some suggestions of what to do, but just not enough.”
Vasquez says she's disappointed in Governor Ducey's announcement Thursday, where she says he cracked down on only a few things.
“50 percent capacity in restaurants? That’s a joke," she said. “We still haven’t been in a restaurant and we somehow contracted it.”
"If people don’t take it serious[ly] and leadership is not ever going to you know take ownership or anything, I don’t know when it’s going to be safe again.”
