Name: Arizona adds a low 138 new COVID-19 cases, 32 deaths as hospitalizations continue general decline
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Arizona adds a low 138 new COVID-19 cases, 32 deaths as hospitalizations continue general decline

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsArizona&nbsp;reported 138 new COVID-19 cases and 32 new known deaths on Thursday, marking 13&nbsp;straight days of case reports under 750 and more than 10 weeks of generally declining hospitalizations for the disease.The state's seven-day average for new reported COVID-19 cases was 483 on Thursday, per state data. The average had reached as high as 9,800 in January.Arizona's seven-day&nbsp;case rate per 100,000 people ranked 53rd Wednesday among all states and territories, after ranking first and second for much of January,&nbsp;according to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's&nbsp;. The only state&nbsp;with a lower case rate over the past seven days was Hawaii.&nbsp;The state's seven-day death rate per 100,000 people&nbsp;ranked fifth in the nation as of Wednesday,&nbsp;.&nbsp;Percent positivity, which refers to the percent of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that are positive, has been declining but varies somewhat based on how it's measured.Last week, Arizona's percent positivity was 5%&nbsp;for the third week&nbsp;in a row and 7% the week&nbsp;before that,&nbsp;according to the state,&nbsp;which&nbsp;has a&nbsp;percent positivity. Weekly percent positivity statewide peaked at 25% in December.&nbsp;calculates&nbsp;Arizona's seven-day moving average&nbsp;of percent positives&nbsp;at 2% as of Thursday.&nbsp;It shows the state's percent positivity peaked at 24.2% in December.A positivity rate of 5% or less is considered a good benchmark that the spread of the disease is under control.Ariz. COVID-19 updates:&nbsp;&nbsp;The state's overall COVID-19 death and case rates since Jan. 21, 2020, remain&nbsp;among the worst in the country.The&nbsp;COVID-19 death rate&nbsp;in Arizona since the pandemic began is 230&nbsp;deaths per 100,000 people as of Wednesday,&nbsp;,&nbsp;putting it sixth in the country in a state ranking that separates New York City from New York state.&nbsp;The U.S. average is 163&nbsp;deaths per 100,000 people as of Wednesday, the CDC said.New York City has&nbsp;the highest death rate, at&nbsp;366&nbsp;deaths per 100,000 people, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Mississippi.Arizona's&nbsp;per 100,000 people since the pandemic began also ranks sixth nationwide as of Wednesday.Arizona's newly reported 32 deaths brought the known COVID-19 death count to 16,874.&nbsp;The state&nbsp;surpassed 16,000 deaths on March&nbsp;2 after passing 15,000 deaths on Feb. 17, 14,000 deaths on Feb. 6 and 13,000 deaths on Jan. 29,&nbsp;just one week after it passed 12,000 and two weeks after 11,000 deaths.&nbsp;The state exceeded 10,000 known deaths on Jan. 9. Arizona's first known death from the disease occurred in mid-March 2020.Many of the reported deaths occurred days or weeks prior, because of reporting delays and death certificate matching.A total of 837,987&nbsp;COVID-19 cases have been identified across the state.&nbsp;February and particularly&nbsp;March have seen relatively lower case reports. Sixteen of the past 18&nbsp;days' reported cases have been under 1,000.The&nbsp;Arizona&nbsp;&nbsp;shows 85% of all ICU beds&nbsp;and 88% of all inpatient&nbsp;beds&nbsp;in the state were in use Wednesday,&nbsp;with 10% of ICU beds and 7% of non-ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. Statewide, 261&nbsp;ICU beds and 1,021&nbsp;non-ICU beds were available.Hospitalizations for the disease have been generally dropping for about 10 weeks.The total number of patients hospitalized in Arizona for known or suspected COVID-19 cases was 628 on Wednesday, down from 653 on Tuesday, and far below the record 5,082 inpatients on Jan. 11.&nbsp;By comparison, the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in a single day during the summer 2020 surge was 3,517 on July 13.The number of patients with suspected or known COVID-19 in ICUs&nbsp;across Arizona was at 165 on Wednesday, up slightly from 162 on Tuesday, and far below the record high of 1,183 on Jan. 11.&nbsp;During the summer surge in mid-July,&nbsp;ICU beds in use for COVID-19 peaked at 970.Arizonans with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 on ventilators tallied 74 on Wednesday, slightly below Tuesday's count of 77&nbsp;and&nbsp;well below the record high 821 reached on&nbsp;Jan. 13.&nbsp;During the summer surge, July 16 was the peak day for ventilator use, with 687 patients.Wednesday saw 973 patients in the emergency room for COVID-19, well below&nbsp;the Dec. 29 single-day record of 2,341 positive or suspected COVID-19 patients seen in emergency departments across the state.Arizona began its first COVID-19 vaccinations&nbsp;for Phase 1A the week of Dec. 14. The state again changed its vaccine rollout plan Monday to&nbsp;allow everyone 16 and older to start registering for appointments at state-operated sites, pharmacies and federally qualified health centers starting Wednesday. Counties can still sub-prioritize age groups and front-line essential workers at county sites.More than 1.9&nbsp;million people statewide had received at least one vaccine dose as of Thursday, with more than 1.1&nbsp;million people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, state data show. Arizona has about 5.6 million adults age 18 and older.Reported cases&nbsp;in Arizona:&nbsp;837,987.Cases&nbsp;since the outbreak began increased by 138, or 0.02%, from Wednesday's 837,849 identified cases.&nbsp;These daily cases&nbsp;are grouped&nbsp;by the date&nbsp;they are reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services, not by the date the tests were administered.&nbsp;Cases by county:&nbsp;522,285&nbsp;in Maricopa, 112,045&nbsp;in Pima, 49,087&nbsp;in&nbsp;Pinal, 36,679&nbsp;in Yuma,&nbsp;22,003&nbsp;in&nbsp;Mohave,&nbsp;18,289 in Yavapai,&nbsp;16,978&nbsp;in Coconino,&nbsp;15,627&nbsp;in Navajo, 11,563&nbsp;in Cochise,&nbsp;10,785&nbsp;in Apache,&nbsp;7,776&nbsp;in Santa Cruz,&nbsp;6,510&nbsp;in Gila,&nbsp;5,355&nbsp;in Graham,&nbsp;2,440&nbsp;in La Paz&nbsp;and&nbsp;563&nbsp;in Greenlee, according to state numbers.The rate of cases per 100,000 people since the pandemic began is highest in Yuma County, followed by Apache, Santa Cruz, Graham and Navajo counties, per state data. The rate in Yuma County is 15,950&nbsp;cases per 100,000 people.&nbsp;By comparison, the U.S. average rate since the pandemic began is&nbsp;8,967&nbsp;cases per 100,000 people as of Wednesday,&nbsp;.The&nbsp;Navajo Nation&nbsp;30,021&nbsp;cases&nbsp;and 1,235&nbsp;confirmed deaths in total as of Tuesday.&nbsp;The Navajo Nation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.The&nbsp;Arizona Department of Corrections&nbsp;12,207&nbsp;inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday,&nbsp;including 2,240 in Tucson, 2,021&nbsp;in Eyman, 2,010&nbsp;in Yuma, 1,303&nbsp;in Lewis and 1,163 in Douglas; 43,646&nbsp;inmates statewide have been tested. A total of 2,734&nbsp;prison staff members have self-reported testing positive, the department said. Forty-one&nbsp;incarcerated people in Arizona have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19, with nine additional deaths under investigation.Race/ethnicity is unknown for 17% of all COVID-19 cases statewide, but 38% of positive cases have been diagnosed in white people, 30% Hispanic or Latino, 5% Native American,&nbsp;3% Black and 1% Asian/Pacific Islander.Of those who have tested positive in Arizona&nbsp;since the start of the pandemic, 16% were younger than 20, 44% were 20-44, 15% were&nbsp;45-54, 12% were&nbsp;55-64 and 13% were age 65 or older.Laboratories had completed 4,002,614 diagnostic&nbsp;tests on unique individuals for COVID-19 as of Wednesday,&nbsp;13.9% of which have come back positive. That number includes both PCR and antigen testing. The percentage of positive tests had increased since mid-May but began decreasing in July and held steady around 4% for several weeks, per the state. It was at&nbsp;5% for the past three full weeks. The state numbers&nbsp;from labs that do not report electronically.ADHS includes probable cases as anyone with a positive&nbsp;, another type of test to determine current infection.&nbsp;Antigen tests (not related to antibody tests) use a nasal swab or another fluid sample to test for current infection. Results are typically produced within 15 minutes.&nbsp;A positive antigen test result is considered very accurate, but there's an increased chance of false-negative results, the Mayo Clinic says.&nbsp;Mayo Clinic officials say a doctor may recommend a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test to confirm a negative antigen test result.&nbsp;Arizona as of Wednesday had&nbsp;the&nbsp;sixth-highest overall case rate in the country since Jan. 21, 2020. Ahead of Arizona in cases per 100,000 people since the pandemic began are North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah and Tennessee,&nbsp;.Arizona's infection rate is 11,503&nbsp;cases per 100,000 people,&nbsp;according to the CDC. The national average is 8,967&nbsp;cases per 100,000 people, though the rates in states hard hit early in the pandemic may be an undercount because of a lack of available testing in March and April 2020.Deaths by county:&nbsp;9,619 in Maricopa, 2,339&nbsp;in Pima, 844&nbsp;in Pinal, 817&nbsp;in Yuma, 680&nbsp;in Mohave, 520&nbsp;in Navajo, 489 in Yavapai, 413&nbsp;in Apache, 324 in Coconino, 277&nbsp;in Cochise, 219 in Gila, 173&nbsp;in Santa Cruz, 76&nbsp;in Graham, 74&nbsp;in La Paz and 10&nbsp;in Greenlee.&nbsp;People age&nbsp;65 and older make up 12,648&nbsp;of the 16,874&nbsp;deaths, or 75%. Following that, 15% of deaths were in the 55-64 age group, 6% were 45-54 and 4% were 20-44 years old.While race/ethnicity was unknown for 7% of deaths, 50% of those who&nbsp;died were&nbsp;white, 29% were Hispanic or Latino, 8% were Native American,&nbsp;3% were Black and&nbsp;1% were Asian/Pacific Islander, the state data show.The&nbsp;global death toll&nbsp;as of Thursday morning was 2,746,397. The U.S. had&nbsp;the highest death count of any country in the world, at 545,317, according to&nbsp;.&nbsp;Arizona's death total of 16,874 deaths represents 3.1% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.&nbsp;Reach the reporter at or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter .Support local journalism. View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsArizona&nbsp;reported 138 new COVID-19 cases and 32 new known deaths on Thursday, marking 13&nbsp;straight days of case reports under 750 and more than 10 weeks of generally declining hospitalizations for the disease.The state's seven-day average for new reported COVID-19 cases was 483 on Thursday, per state data. The average had reached as high as 9,800 in January.Arizona's seven-day&nbsp;case rate per 100,000 people ranked 53rd Wednesday among all states and territories, after ranking first and second for much of January,&nbsp;according...

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Alison Steinbach

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Arizona adds a low 138 new COVID-19 cases, 32 deaths as hospitalizations continue general decline

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