Arizona adds 310 coronavirus cases, 20 deaths to outbreak totals

Apr 23, 2020, 9:05 AM | Updated: Apr 24, 2020, 8:47 am

(Photo by Andrew Milligan - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

PHOENIX — Arizona added more than 300 coronavirus cases to its total Thursday morning and another 20 deaths, according to the state health department.

With 310 additional positive tests, Arizona now has 5,769 cases and 249 deaths from COVID-19 after the third consecutive day of at least 20 fatalities.

There have been 58,697 tests given in the state, according to the health department, an increase of more than 2,000 from the previous day.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has been providing case and testing updates on its website each morning. The daily report includes details about deaths and hospital capacity plus a ZIP code map of cases. (Check your ZIP code in the chart below.)

The state reported 5,459 cases and 229 deaths, with 56,601 tests given, on Wednesday morning.

The number of cases in Maricopa County, the state’s most-populous region, increased by 124 to 2,970 on Thursday, according to the state report.

The Phoenix-area death total increased by 18 to 115, according to the state.

Pima County — Tucson and the surrounding area — became the second county in the state with more than 1,000 cases, with 1,026.

Of the Arizonans who have died from COVID-19, 187 were age 65 or older, 75% of the total. Thirty-eight deaths were age 55-64, 17 were 45-54 and seven were 20-44.

All but two of the deaths reported Thursday were in the 65-or-older group.

On Wednesday afternoon, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced that he’s lifting the ban on elective surgeries effective May 1. He also said he’d wait until next week to decide whether to alter Arizona’s stay-at-home order, which went into effect March 31 and was initially set to run through April 30.

Ducey told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Broomhead Show on Thursday morning he has three options to weigh: let the order expire, extend it in its current form or modify and improve it.

Testing for COVID-19 remains limited because of a national and local supply shortage. Health officials have prioritized at-risk populations, people showing serious symptoms and health care workers for getting tested. In most cases, a positive diagnosis won’t change a patient’s treatment plan.

Coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 46,379 deaths from more than 828,000 COVID-19 cases as of Thursday’s daily U.S. update.

According to data compiled and regularly updated by Johns Hopkins University, there were more than 2.6 million cases and over 187,000 deaths globally as of Thursday afternoon.

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