Arizona reports 2,537 new coronavirus cases, 86 additional deaths
Jul 12, 2020, 8:26 AM | Updated: Jul 13, 2020, 8:11 am
(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information, news and updates about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Sunday, July 12.
PHOENIX – The Arizona health department reported 2,537 new coronavirus cases and 86 additional deaths on Sunday morning.
That brought the state’s totals to 122,467 COVID-19 cases and 2,237 fatalities.
It was the sixth time this month there were at least 40 new deaths reported.
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.
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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.
New 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 who don’t show symptoms are still capable of spreading the coronavirus.
Face coverings can help prevent the virus’ spread and are required in public throughout the Phoenix area where social distancing isn’t possible.
On Thursday, Gov. Doug Ducey ordered Arizona’s restaurants to restrict occupancy to under 50% of capacity and revealed plans for ramping up testing.
He also said there are signs the state’s COVID-19 curve is starting to flatten. The latest health department report backs that up to some extent but also shows that the virus continues to spread at a high rate and strain hospital resources.
Arizona’s weekly positive rate for PCR tests, which diagnose active coronavirus infections, has been steadily rising since early May, when it was 5%, but is showing signs of leveling off. Of the tests processed this week, 19% have come back positive, down two percentage points from the previous two weeks. The previous weekly rates can fluctuate as test results come in for samples taken during that timeframe.
There have been more than 695,000 PCR tests given in Arizona since the start of the pandemic, including 12,170 added to the total Sunday, with a positive rate of 14.1%. It was 14% on Friday, 13.9% on Thursday, 12% on June 30 and 6.7% on May 31.
The overall number of hospitalizations and the percentage of inpatient beds filled in Arizona reached 86% with 6,791 inpatients Saturday, according to the report.
The number of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients in Arizona’s hospitals decreased Saturday to 3,432, 49.3% of the inpatient total.
It was only the third time since June 14 that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients decreased from one day to the next.
Arizona’s intensive care units moved up to 89% full Saturday, a decrease from the 90% the previous day, and down from 91% on Tuesday.
The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds hit a record high Saturday of 922, 61% of the state’s 1,511 ICU patients.
In other notable hospital data from Saturday related to confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients:
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- 435 were discharged, a decrease of 106 from the previous report.
- 1,727 were seen in emergency departments, the fourth straight day that number decreased after a record 2,008 were seen Tuesday.
- 631 were on ventilators, the sixth straight day of increases and a new record high. (About half of the state’s ventilator supply remains unused.)
- 98 intubations for respiratory distress were performed, a decrease from 108 on Friday.
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 Sunday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- Arizona State University will disburse at least $31.7 million from the federal coronavirus relief bill to direct student support through spring 2021.
- Florida set a new national record for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases.
- Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez announced an additional 44 cases of COVID-19 among the Navajo Nation. No new deaths were reported.
