TUCSON, AZ – JANUARY 14: An employee walks toward refrigerated trucks containing bodies at the Pima County Forensic Physician’s Office on January 14, 2021 in Tucson, Arizona. After reaching capacity in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, two refrigerated semi-trucks arrived at the Pima County Forensic Physician’s Office to store them. (Photo by Courtney Pedroza / Getty Images)
This is a periodically updated story with the latest information on coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond January 16, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 8,715 new coronavirus cases and 208 additional deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday.
The state’s documented total moved to 666,901 COVID-19 infections and 11,248 deaths, according to the health department board.
More than 1,000 deaths have been added to the total over the past seven days.
Arizona currently leads the nation in cases and has the second highest number of deaths per capita for COVID-19 in the past seven days, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
COVID-19 state hospitalizations have begun to decline after rising to record levels earlier this week.
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 confirmed or suspected in Arizona fell for the fourth consecutive day to 4,849 on Friday, the lowest since Jan. 4.
Patients with suspected or confirmed state-wide COVID-19 obtained 56% of all hospital beds and 64% of all ICU beds on Friday, both below the previous day.
Overall, hospital beds and ICU beds were 92% full each.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for diagnostic tests for COVID-19, an indicator of how far the virus is spreading in the community, has dropped since it hit an all-time high two weeks ago.
Of the 95,022 people tested this week, 20% got a positive result. The positive rate is 22% for the 204,788 people tested last week, a drop of 2 percentage points from the previous week’s record level.
Official positivity rates are based on when samples are taken, not when they are reported, so the percentage in recent weeks may fluctuate as labs catch up on testing. and the state documents the results.
The state health department’s new seven-day coronavirus average was 8,847.86 on Friday, and fell for the third day in a row, according to The Associated Press.
The average of seven days of deaths reported by COVID-19 recently decreased to 157.43 on Friday, marking the second consecutive day in which the number of deaths has decreased.
Daily status updates present case, death, and evidence data after the state receives and confirms statistics, which can take several days or more. They do not represent the actual activity during the last 24 hours.
Hospitalization data released each morning is communicated electronically the night before by 100 hospitals across the state, as required by executive order.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has no impact on some people and is severely debilitating or deadly to others. Asymptomatic infected people, which include, among others, cough, fever, and difficulty breathing, are able to spread the virus.
Diagnostic tests are available at hundreds of sites across Arizona and should be looked for by anyone with symptoms or who may have been exposed to an infected person. Information on locations, times, and registration can be found on the Department of Health Services website.
The department also has a vaccine search page with a map of active and pending sites and links to registration websites.
Below are the latest developments on Saturday on the coronavirus pandemic across the state, the country and the world:
- Globally, there were approximately 93.97 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.01 million deaths as of Friday morning, according to research from Johns Hopkins University. U.S. figures were about 23.53 million cases and 392,182 deaths.