Arizona reports 3,259 new coronavirus cases, 58 additional deaths

This is a regularly updated story with the latest information, news and updates about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Thursday, July 16.

PHOENIX – The Arizona health department reported 3,259 new coronavirus cases Thursday morning and 58 additional deaths.

That moved the state’s totals to 134,613 COVID-19 cases and 2,492 fatalities as Arizona reported at least 50 deaths for the sixth time in the past seven days.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has been providing case and testing updates on its website each morning. The dashboard includes, among other information, testing trends, updated hospital capacity and a ZIP code map of cases.

The daily reports present data after the state receives statistics and confirms them, which can lag by several days. They don’t represent the actual activity over the past 24 hours.

On Wednesday, the health department announced it reached a deal to bring 600 nurses from out state to work at Arizona hospitals that are expanding their capacity under surge plans.

New COVID-19 cases have been increasing in Arizona at a faster rate than testing has been increasing, indicating community spread of a virus that has no impact on some people and is seriously debilitating or fatal for others. Infected people without symptoms – which include but are not limited to cough, fever and difficulty breathing — are capable of spreading the coronavirus.

Face coverings can help prevent the virus’ spread, health experts say, and are required in public throughout the Phoenix area and many other Arizona communities when social distancing isn’t possible.

Arizona’s weekly positive rate for PCR tests, which diagnose active coronavirus infections, had been steadily rising since early May, when it was 5%, but is showing signs of leveling off. The positive rate for last week’s completed tests is 17%, which, if it holds up, would be the first weekly decline in 10 weeks.

However, the positive rate for completed PCR tests conducted this week is 19% so far, although only around 8,200 have been processed.

There have been more than 748,000 PCR tests completed in Arizona since the start of the pandemic, including 13,307 added to the reported total Thursday. The positive rate was at 14.3% for the second consecutive day Thursday. It was 12% on the last day of June and 6.7% on the last day of May.

The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona’s hospitals dipped for the second consecutive day to 3,454 on Wednesday, down 63 from the record high from two days earlier.

The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds also declined for the second consecutive day to 918, 52 below the record high from Monday.

According to hospital data for Wednesday, 50.3% of all Arizona inpatients and 61.2% of the state’s ICU patients are confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases.

In other notable hospital data from Wednesday related to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients:

• 529 were discharged, 52 more than the previous day and the fourth most ever.
• 1,695 were seen in emergency departments, 115 fewer than the previous day and the seventh day-to-day drop in the past eight days.
• 657 were on ventilators, 14 fewer than the previous day and 17 down from the record high seen Monday. (Just under half of the state’s ventilator supply, 47%, remained unused.)
• 106 intubations for respiratory distress were performed, two fewer than the previous day.

Arizona’s overall inpatient and ICU occupancy rates have been high but stable in recent reports.

Inpatient beds were 87% full for the second consecutive day Wednesday and have been at least 85% full each of the past nine days, peaking at 88% on July 10.

ICU beds were 89% full, 1 percentage point below the previous day. The ICU occupancy rate has been at least 88% each day since June 29, with a high of 91% reported July 7.

Hospital bed data on the health department website does not include surge beds that have not been activated but can potentially increase capacity.

Below are Thursday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:

• Navajo Nation reported 79 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths. The death toll has reached 407, while 8,486 cases have been reported. A total of 6,213 individuals have recovered from the virus.
• Gov. Doug Ducey announced the state would extend protection through the end of October for people facing eviction from coronavirus-related circumstances.
• Gov. Doug Ducey stuck with his plan to resume in-person instruction during the middle of August for Arizona schools.
• Gov. Doug Ducey announced a hefty deposit into the public health fund to help combat the coronavirus spread in Arizona.
• Individual professors at the University of Arizona will decide whether to teach their fall classes in person, remotely or in a hybrid fashion.
• Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russian hackers on Thursday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a coronavirus vaccine, warning scientists and pharmaceutical companies to be alert for suspicious activity.
• The town of Gilbert’s ordinance on face coverings will expire Sunday and be replaced by Maricopa County’s existing mask regulations.
• Given the early success of its saliva-based coronavirus testing program, the ASU Biodesign Institute is ready to ramp up its efforts.

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