Q&A with top Arizona health official on coronavirus, state’s future outlook

PHOENIX — Arizona’s top public health official has been one of the state’s leading figures in the fight against coronavirus.

Dr. Cara Christ, director for the Arizona Department of Public Health, was alongside Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday when Arizona’s “stay-at-home” order was extended two weeks until May 15.

Christ spoke with KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday to discuss the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, clarify data discrepancies and what the next steps needed will be in order to reopen the state.

Here is a sampling of questions and answers from Christ’s interview:

Where would you say right now Arizona is on the curve? Has it been flattening? Has it been going up? Has it been going down?

Christ: If I had to predict where we were on the curve, I’d say we have been flattening the curve with our mitigation strategies that the slope of new cases has flattened. So that’s a really, really good thing.

We’ve learned of six new symptoms (chills, repeated shaking, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, new loss of smell or taste) for coronavirus. How can patients tell the difference between allergies or the flu, especially if it’s mild? At what point should a doctor be called?

Christ: So what we’re looking for with COVID is a cough and shortness of breath or difficulty in breathing and at least two of those other symptoms you mentioned. And really, that can be difficult because those symptoms can be consistent with a cold, with influenza, with allergies. What we would recommend is that if you have an underlying medical condition that puts you at risk, reach out to your health care provider.

How much of a lag is there between the data we are seeing each day and what’s actually happening in the state?

Christ: We anticipate a 4 to 7 day lag in the data. Before it’s complete. Most of the labs are getting reports to Arizona in an average of 1.2 days. If they’re coming in through an electronic lab reporting, that should come in pretty quick.

Is there an expectation that Arizona will get down to zero new cases at some point this year or will COVID-19 be in our state until a vaccine is found?

Christ: I would anticipate that COVID-19 is going to be around for a while. Given the fact that it is highly contagious, we are having individuals testing positive that have no symptoms so they don’t even know they have the disease. That makes it a little harder to track down and eradicate.

As a health professional, what would you like to see businesses that begin to reopen follow in order to reach optimal public health safety?

Christ: I think one of the most important things is the ability to have hand washing or hand sanitizer. I think that’s something everyone can take personal responsibility for. I think everyone maintaining physical distancing and limiting the amount of people in stores at one time. And potentially adding additional measures to identify best practices.

What is the law that prevents you from reporting at least the numbers in long-term care facilities?

Christ: We’re looking at what numbers per facility type information we can release. We’re hoping to potentially add that to our dashboard. That will be a feature moving forward but we don’t know where the team is on that. There are laws preventing us from releasing identifying information about individuals.  These are state laws and state administrative code that require us from deidentifying, including any geographic location that is smaller than the state level.

In two weeks, what’s the data you hope to have in order to help the governor make the decision about the next step for Arizona?

Christ: We would want to see that we were staying steady or decreasing on our labs that come back positive. But we’re also going to want to see an increase in tests. As we increase tests, we’re going to see an increase in cases so that’s not going to play as importantly as other data.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Martha Maurer contributed to this report.

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