Arizona still ranks highest in the nation for average new coronavirus cases and deaths per 100,000 people.
Arizona surpassed 12,200 known COVID-19 deaths and 720,000 known cases on Sunday as the state again ranked highest nationwide for its case and death rates over the past week.
Friday’s death count of more than 12,000 came just one week after it passed 11,000, which came six days after the state reported 10,000 deaths. Arizona’s first known death from the disease occurred in mid-March.
Many of the deaths occurred days or weeks prior, due to reporting delays and death certificate matching.
Arizona’s average daily COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people over the past seven days ranked first in the nation as of Saturday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker.
Arizona’s seven-day new-case average also ranked first among all states Saturday after ranking first and second the past two weeks, according to the CDC.
Arizona’s rate of new positive cases over the last seven days was 97.9 cases per 100,000 people, per the CDC. The U.S. average for new cases is 54.4 cases per 100,000 people.
The state reported more than 17,200 new cases on Jan. 3, the highest number of new COVID-19 cases reported in a single day since the pandemic began, toppling the state’s previous record from Dec. 8 by nearly 5,000 cases. The record followed the Christmas and New Year’s holiday weekends.
The Arizona data dashboard shows 91% of all ICU beds and 90% of all inpatient beds in the state were in use Saturday, with 58% of ICU beds and 50% of non-ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. Statewide, 152 ICU beds and 863 non-ICU beds were available.
The number of patients hospitalized in Arizona for known or suspected COVID-19 cases was at 4,320 on Saturday, below the record 5,082 inpatients on Jan. 11.
The number of patients with suspected or known COVID-19 in ICUs across Arizona was at 1,054 on Saturday, below the record high of 1,183 on Jan. 11.
Arizonans with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 on ventilators tallied 720 on Saturday, below the record-high 821 reached on Jan. 13.
Saturday saw 1,944 patients in the emergency room for COVID-19, below the Dec. 29 single-day record of 2,341 positive or suspected COVID-19 patients seen in emergency departments across the state.
Sunday’s 7,217 new cases brought the total number of identified COVID-19 cases in the state to 722,574. As of Sunday, 12,238 Arizonans are known to have died from the disease, according to the data dashboard from ADHS.
Sunday’s numbers
Reported cases in Arizona: 722,574. Cases since the outbreak began increased by 7,217, or 1%, from Saturday’s 715,357 identified cases. These daily cases are grouped by the date they are reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services, not by the date the tests were administered.
Cases by county: 449,162 in Maricopa, 96,738 in Pima, 39,751 in Pinal, 34,269 in Yuma, 18,277 in Mohave, 15,736 in Yavapai, 14,745 in Coconino, 13,988 in Navajo, 10,157 in Cochise, 9,204 in Apache, 7,297 in Santa Cruz, 5,756 in Gila, 4,816 in Graham, 2,170 in La Paz and 508 in Greenlee, according to state numbers.
The Navajo Nation reported 27,109 cases and 966 confirmed deaths in total as of Saturday. The Navajo Nation includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
The Arizona Department of Corrections reported 9,108 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday, including 1,813 in Yuma, 1,760 in Tucson, 1,282 in Eyman and 1,126 in Douglas; 43,410 inmates statewide have been tested. A total of 2,363 prison staff members have self-reported testing positive, the department said. Thirty incarcerated people in Arizona have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19, with 17 additional deaths under investigation.
Arizona as of Saturday had the eighth-highest overall case rate in the country since Jan. 21, 2020.
Arizona’s infection rate is 9,728 cases per 100,000 people, the CDC said. The national average is 7,441 cases per 100,000 people, though the rates in states hard hit early on in the pandemic may be an undercount because of a lack of available testing in March and April. Reported deaths in Arizona: 12,238 Deaths by county: 6,950 in Maricopa, 1,611 in Pima, 673 in Yuma, 547 in Pinal, 488 in Mohave, 412 in Navajo, 356 in Yavapai, 293 in Apache, 261 in Coconino, 208 in Cochise, 179 in Gila, 140 in Santa Cruz, 63 in Graham, 51 in La Paz and six in Greenlee.
The global death toll as of Sunday morning was 2,123,968 and the U.S. had the highest death count of any country in the world, at 417,539, according to Johns Hopkins University. Arizona’s death total of 12,238 deaths represents 2.9% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. as of Sunday.