Arizona exceeds 13,000 known COVID-19 deaths
Arizona passed 13,000 known COVID-19 deaths and approached 750,000 known cases on Friday, as hospitalizations continued gradual declines but the state again ranked highest nationwide for its case rate over the past week.
The state’s newly reported 203 deaths brought the known death count to more than 13,000 just one week after it passed 12,000 and two weeks after 11,000 deaths. The state exceeded 10,000 known deaths on Jan. 9. Arizona’s first known death from the disease occurred in mid-March.
Arizona’s seven-day, new-case average ranked first Thursday among all states, after ranking first and second for much of January, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker.
The state’s rate of new positive cases over the last seven days was 94.2 cases per 100,000 people, per the CDC, trailed by South Carolina with 76 cases per 100,000. The U.S. average for new cases was 48.8 cases per 100,000 people.
In about one year since the first case was announced in Arizona, a total of 748,260 COVID-19 cases have been identified across the state.
As of Friday, 13,022 Arizonans are known to have died from the disease, according to the data dashboard from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The Arizona data dashboard shows 91% of all ICU beds and 91% of all inpatient beds in the state were in use Thursday, with 56% of ICU beds and 46% of non-ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. Statewide, 154 ICU beds and 818 non-ICU beds were available.
The number of patients hospitalized in Arizona for known or suspected COVID-19 cases was at 3,970 on Thursday, 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 1,002 on Thursday, below the record high of 1,183 on Jan. 11.
Arizonans with confirmed and suspected COVID-19 on ventilators tallied 678 on Thursday, below the record-high 821 reached on Jan. 13.
Thursday saw 1,723 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.
Friday’s numbers
Reported cases in Arizona: 748,260. Cases since the outbreak began increased by 5,028, or 0.68%, from Thursday’s 743,232 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: 465,875 in Maricopa, 100,272 in Pima, 42,052 in Pinal, 34,871 in Yuma, 18,883 in Mohave, 16,096 in Yavapai, 15,021 in Coconino, 14,229 in Navajo, 10,365 in Cochise, 9,482 in Apache, 7,400 in Santa Cruz, 5,934 in Gila, 5,050 in Graham, 2,214 in La Paz and 516 in Greenlee, according to state numbers.
The Navajo Nation reported 27,987 cases and 1,000 confirmed deaths in total as of Thursday.
The Arizona Department of Corrections reported 9,717 inmates had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Thursday, including 1,907 in Tucson, 1,852 in Yuma, 1,580 in Eyman and 1,127 in Douglas; 43,466 inmates statewide have been tested. A total of 2,460 prison staff members have self-reported testing positive, the department said. Thirtyone incarcerated people in Arizona have been confirmed to have died of COVID-19, with 17 additional deaths under investigation.
Arizona’s infection rate is 10,147 cases per 100,000 people, the CDC said. The national average is 7,668 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.
Deaths by county: 7,375 in Maricopa, 1,736 in Pima, 697 in Yuma, 609 in Pinal, 518 in Mohave, 429 in Navajo, 381 in Yavapai, 311 in Apache, 276 in Coconino, 226 in Cochise, 189 in Gila, 146 in Santa Cruz, 65 in Graham, 58 in La Paz and six in Greenlee.