Arizona well prepared for second wave of coronavirus, health official says

PHOENIX — Arizona Department of Health Services Director Cara Christ said Monday she believes the state is well prepared to handle a second wave of the coronavirus.

Christ said the steps taken to slow the current coronavirus outbreak will have established a medical infrastructure adequately equipped to combat a potential second outbreak.

“The second wave will be much different than the first wave,” she told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

“We’ll have more testing established, we’ll already have … the beds, the ventilators, the resources that we need.”

Arizona also has a current stockpile of about 1,500 ventilators, according to Christ. She expects most of those to remain in Arizona after the peak of COVID-19 cases subsides.

“This will put us in a very good position,” she added.

Earlier on Monday, the state health department announced the implementation of Arizona Testing Blitz — an effort to to test 10,000-20,000 residents for coronavirus over each of the next three Saturdays.

There have been 66,543 COVID-19 tests administered in Arizona as of Monday morning.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Taylor Kinnerup contributed to this report.

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