Arizona reports daily highs of 67 coronavirus deaths, 581 cases

PHOENIX — Arizona’s reported coronavirus death total surged by 67 to 517 on Friday morning, according to the state health department.

The big jump in fatalities was a result of new surveillance of weeks-old death certificates, which accounted for more than half of the deaths reported Friday, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

“This surveillance can provide key information about risk factors and the severity of a disease, especially when dealing with a novel virus,” Health Director Dr. Cara Christ said in a blog post.

The research, which went back as far as the week of April 12, turned up 35 of the deaths reported Friday, Christ said, meaning there was a relatively high single-day report of 32.

Today’s dashboard includes an important update to the #COVID19 data including notable changes related to reporting deaths. Due to the change, more than half of new deaths reported today are from death certificate surveillance dating back to week of April https://t.co/QQ2z66mkVn pic.twitter.com/ZXdao7Gr3a

— AZ Dept of Health (@AZDHS) May 8, 2020

The state’s positive test total increased by 581 to 10,526. It was Arizona’s largest daily reported case and death increase to date.

There have been 101,125 tests given in Arizona, an increase of 4,691 from Thursday morning. The positive rate held steady at 8.1%.

The health department has been providing case and testing updates on its website each morning. The daily report includes, among other information, details about deaths from COVID-19 and hospital capacity plus a ZIP code map of cases.

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

On Thursday morning, the department reported 9,945 cases and 450 deaths with 96,434 tests given.

Most of the deaths reported Friday were in the state’s two largest counties. Maricopa County added 34, and Pima County’s total increased by 13.

The new total include the first reported deaths in Cochise and Gila counties.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, Arizona moved up to 46th among states in coronavirus testing per capita Thursday. Arizona was 50th on Wednesday.

The state is pushing to increase its diagnostic testing, in part, through the Arizona Testing Blitz. Saturday will be the second of three weekend installments of the plan.

The program allows anybody with symptoms or who thinks they may have been exposed to COVID-19 to get tested for the virus. Most of the 40 participating testing sites require preregistration.

On Thursday night, Yuma County reported the state’s first pediatric death related to the coronavirus. The patient, whose age and sex was not revealed, had underlying health conditions, the county said.

Gov. Doug Ducey recently announced that the state’s stay-at-home executive order, which has been in effect since March 31, was being extended through May 15 with modifications.

As a result, retail stores, barber shops and hair salons were among the businesses permitted to reopen as soon as Friday if they follow guidelines designed to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Restaurants, which have been limited to takeout and delivery under Ducey’s order, can resume dine-in service on a limited basis Monday.

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.

In most cases, a positive test won’t change a patient’s treatment plan.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 73,297 deaths from more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases as of Thursday’s daily U.S. update.

According to data compiled and regularly updated by Johns Hopkins University, there were nearly 3.9 million cases and more than 270,000 deaths globally as of Friday morning.

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