Arizona reports 1,465 new coronavirus cases, 18 more deaths

PHOENIX – Arizona health authorities reported 1,465 new coronavirus cases and 18 additional deaths on Sunday morning.

The numbers brought the state’s documented totals to 178,467 COVID-19 cases and 3,765 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

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.

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

Implementation of face mask requirements in various cities and counties in the state along with the statewide executive orders to close businesses such as bars and gyms and to restrict restaurant occupancy was made after the state became a global hot spot for the coronavirus.

The coronavirus has no impact on some people and is seriously debilitating or fatal for others. Infected people without symptoms – which include but are not limited to cough, fever and difficulty breathing — are capable of spreading the virus.

In recent weeks spread of the coronavirus in Arizona has been showing signs of slowing.

The positive rate for diagnostic PCR tests in the state, which indicates how much the virus is spreading, is falling.

Weekly rates are based on when the samples are taken, not when they are reported, so the percentage for recent weeks can fluctuate as labs get caught up on testing backlogs.

For the 32,263 tests given and processed this week, the positive rate is 11%.

The weekly positive rate starting growing from 5% in early May once Arizona’s stay-at-home order expired and reached a peak of 21% the week starting June 28.

While the Arizona health department’s data can lag by several days, hospitalization data posted each morning is reported the previous evening by the hospitals.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients continued to fall Saturday to 2,147, the lowest since June 22.

COVID-19 patients in ICU beds remained largely the same from Friday to Saturday, slightly increasing to 1,480.

Inpatient beds were 83% full Saturday, the same as Friday. The inpatient occupancy rate peaked July 9-10 at 88%.

The ICU occupancy rate was 85% Saturday. The ICU occupancy rate topped out at 91% on July 7.

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:

• The performance group known as The Ladies is inviting Valley art lovers to some favorite locales in Chandler during the month of August for some socially-distanced comedy.
• The Associated General Contractors of America found that Phoenix had the fourth-largest loss in construction jobs of the 358 metro areas tracked between June 2019 and June 2020.

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