Arizona’s infection diagnosis rate worst in nation

PHOENIX — Arizona on Saturday reported over 200 additional deaths from COVID-19 as the state kept its worst-in-the-nation infection diagnosis rate.

The Department of Health Services reported 8,715 additional known cases and 208 additional deaths, increasing the pandemic totals to 666,901 cases and 11,248 deaths.

There were 4,849 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of Friday, down from Monday’s record 5,082, according to the department’s coronavirus dashboard.

Arizona’s COVID-19 diagnosis rate from Jan. 8 to Friday was one person in every 116 residents. The diagnosis rate is a state’s population divided by the number of new cases over the past week.

Arizona’s seven-day rolling average of daily new cases increased over the past two weeks, rising from 6,190.3 new cases per day on Jan. 1 to 8,847.9 new cases per day on Friday, while the rolling average of daily deaths during the period rose from 86.6 to 157.5, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project.

In other developments:

Louisiana has identified the state’s first case of the COVID-19 variant in a person in the New Orleans area, the governor’s office said Saturday.

The variant, frequently referred to as the U.K. variant because of its prevalence in the United Kingdom, spreads more easily than other viral strains circulating in the U.S., officials said.

■ A Washtenaw County woman is the first person in Michigan diagnosed with the COVID-19 variant, according to state health officials.

The variant was identified Saturday by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Laboratories.

The woman recently had traveled to the United Kingdom.