Arizona reports 434 new coronavirus cases, 15 deaths

PHOENIX — The Arizona health department reported 15 new deaths from coronavirus on Saturday morning.

Arizona now has 532 deaths from COVID-19. With 434 additional positive tests, the total of cases increased to 10,960.

There have been 128,940 tests given in Arizona, according to the report, an increase of 9,033 from the previous day. The positive rate held steady at 8%.

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.

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.

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.

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, barbershops 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 75,477 deaths from more than 1.2 million COVID-19 cases as of Friday’s daily U.S. update.

According to data compiled and regularly updated by Johns Hopkins University, there were nearly four million cases and more than 275,000 deaths globally as of Saturday morning.

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