Name: Arizona COVID-19 cases surpass 100,000 as weekslong spikes continue
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Arizona COVID-19 cases surpass 100,000 as weekslong spikes continue

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsKnown cases of COVID-19 in Arizona passed 100,000 on Monday, just over five months since the first case was identified in Maricopa County in late January and just over two weeks since the case count passed 50,000.&nbsp;Identified cases rose to 101,441 and known deaths total 1,810, according to the . The state does not report the number of recovered cases, though it does report hospital discharges.Rapid case increases and hospitalizations have made Arizona&nbsp;now among the worst hot spots in the nation&nbsp;for COVID-19. The disease is widespread here, and health officials unless necessary to leave and to wear masks in public.&nbsp;Vice President Mike Pence,&nbsp;who visited Arizona on Wednesday,&nbsp;said he is to assist the state.Hospitalizations in inpatient and ICU beds and ventilators in use by COVID-19 patients rose on Sunday to their highest reported levels since hospital data reporting&nbsp;began in early April. As of Sunday, a record 3,212 inpatient hospital beds were occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients, in addition to a record 839 ICU beds filled across the state.Monday's dashboard shows 84% of current inpatient beds and 89% of ICU beds were in use, which includes people being treated for&nbsp;COVID-19 and other patients.Most people who get the disease are not hospitalized.&nbsp;Arizona reported its of COVID-19 on Jan. 26&nbsp;—&nbsp;a member of the&nbsp;Arizona State University community&nbsp;who had traveled to Wuhan, China.&nbsp;At that point, he was the fifth confirmed case in the U.S.From there, , albeit relatively slowly compared to spikes seen in other parts of the country. By the end of March, there were more than 1,000 known cases in the state.Starting in late May, after Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order expired, cases began ballooning and have been spiking daily since.Arizona's total case count passed 50,000 on June 21 and doubled to more than 100,000 in two weeks.Here are some of the major case milestones by date reported:&nbsp;These are not&nbsp;all the COVID-19 cases in the state. Many new coronavirus cases are believed to be , meaning people can spread the virus without knowing they have it. Those people are less likely to be tested and make it into the official count. Many others may have been&nbsp;unable to get tested due to test shortages early on or are still waiting for their results.&nbsp;Arizonans have recently reported&nbsp;&nbsp;and to get results. The daily cases reported are not all from the previous day's results&nbsp;— they could have been tests conducted weeks ago.While increased testing over the past month has contributed to an increase in known cases, it is only one factor resulting in the big increase in case numbers. The percentage of tests coming back positive has spiked sharply since mid-May,&nbsp;indicating a significant increase in community spread.During&nbsp;the past three weeks, cases increased by 176% and tests increased by&nbsp;just&nbsp;79%. Last week, 22% of tests conducted came back positive.Here's what you need to know about&nbsp;Monday's new numbers. Vice President Mike Pence is sending help.&nbsp;Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force&nbsp;&nbsp;met&nbsp;with Ducey and Arizona health care teams to discuss the unfolding COVID-19 crisis. Pence&nbsp;canceled a planned campaign event&nbsp;in Tucson and a visit to hard-hit Yuma due to rising COVID-19 numbers.Pence said he was instructing the acting Homeland Security secretary to provide , after Ducey&nbsp;requested&nbsp;extra help to combat the new coronavirus.&nbsp;Those doctors, nurses and personnel should arrive in the coming days, and will follow the additional&nbsp;62 medical personnel who arrived in Tucson earlier last week to help efforts there.Hospital systems worry about staffing, elective surgeries and other challenges.&nbsp;&nbsp;that while there are plans in place for a surge of COVID-19 patients, it would put great pressure on staffing, test supplies and other hospital services.As cases and hospitalizations rise, some hospitals have begun&nbsp;&nbsp;or are considering pausing them to ensure there’s enough capacity to handle the influx of patients.Several hospitals in the Banner Health and Dignity Health systems have begun &nbsp;to increase capacity for patients.&nbsp;The state&nbsp;officially last week after a recommendation from an advisory group and at the urging of doctors, who signed&nbsp;a petition.&nbsp;Ducey "pauses" some activities as spread continues.&nbsp;Ducey last Monday announced he would again . The directive, which also covers water parks and tubing, will apply through at least July 27.&nbsp;For weeks, Ducey had attempted to reassure&nbsp;Arizonans the state was doing enough to control the&nbsp;pandemic. But the numbers&nbsp;— and the public pressure&nbsp;—&nbsp;became too overwhelming to ignore.&nbsp;An&nbsp;of Ducey's words and actions over the past four months showed that he has been slow to adopt aggressive strategies&nbsp;to minimize coronavirus infections and deaths.The percentage of positive tests is increasing.&nbsp;This is the opposite direction from White House reopening criteria.&nbsp;The percentage of positive tests out of all tests per week increased to 22%&nbsp;last week. That figure was 14% a month ago, up to 18% three weeks ago, to 21% two weeks ago. When the state decided to reopen on May 16, that number had been trending down, but it has been increasing ever since.&nbsp;An increasing share of COVID-19 cases are younger people.&nbsp;After the state reopened in mid-May,&nbsp;of COVID-19 cases, largely due to increased activity in younger generations. While younger people are less likely to be hospitalized or have severe outcomes, they can still easily pass along the virus to older or more vulnerable individuals.&nbsp;In addition to younger people, the virus has begun&nbsp;&nbsp;(among the patient ethnicity data that is known), an effect that has helped drive Arizona's surge of infections in June. Latino residents are more than twice as likely to become infected as non-Latino residents.&nbsp;Non-Hispanic people face infection rates of about 252 cases per 100,000 people. For Hispanics, the rate is 540 per 100,000.&nbsp;Hospital capacity.&nbsp;Ducey&nbsp;previously has emphasized the state has , pointing to current available space in hospitals as well as additional surge methods and more beds that can be brought online if necessary. Ducey recently said hospitals could hit surge capacity "very soon," which would trigger a need for emergency staffing and the use of field hospitals such as a reopened St. Luke's Medical Center in Phoenix.&nbsp;Republic reporters Rachel Leingang, Maria Polletta and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed to this story.Reach the reporter at or at 602-444-4282. Follow her on Twitter .Support local journalism. View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsKnown cases of COVID-19 in Arizona passed 100,000 on Monday, just over five months since the first case was identified in Maricopa County in late January and just over two weeks since the case count passed 50,000.&nbsp;Identified cases rose to 101,441 and known deaths total 1,810, according to the . The state does not report the number of recovered cases, though it does report hospital discharges.Rapid case increases and hospitalizations have made Arizona&nbsp;now among the worst hot spots in the nation&nbsp;for COVID-19. The disease is widespread here, and...

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Arizona COVID-19 cases surpass 100,000 as weekslong spikes continue

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