Arizona passes 200,000 reported coronavirus cases, adds 33 deaths
Aug 27, 2020, 8:23 AM | Updated: 2:34 pm
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information, news and updates about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Thursday, Aug. 27.
PHOENIX – On a day many businesses across the state gained clearance to reopen, Arizona surpassed the 200,000 mark for coronavirus cases.
State health authorities reported 680 new coronavirus cases and 33 more deaths on Thursday morning.
That put the state’s documented totals at 200,139 COVID-19 infections and 4,929 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Multiple key metrics about the severity of Arizona’s pandemic are at or near the lowest they’ve been in a month or more.
The metrics on the state’s business data dashboard, which is based on the daily COVID-19 dashboard, were updated later Thursday morning. Several counties, including Maricopa and Pima, hit the COVID-19 benchmarks that allow gyms, bars operating as restaurants, theaters, water parks and tubing operators to begin reopening.
The rolling seven-day average for newly reported cases declined Wednesday to 557.43, the lowest seen since June 1, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
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The seven-day average of newly reported deaths dipped to 37.43, the lowest mark since July 8.
The seven-day average for new cases peaked July 6 at 3,844, and the stat for deaths reached a high of 94 on July 30.
The spread of coronavirus in Arizona has been slowing in the month-plus since the implementation of face mask requirements by local governments in many areas — including all of Maricopa County — and statewide executive orders to close certain businesses and restrict restaurant occupancy.
Those moves were made after the state became a global hot spot for the coronavirus, which 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.
Arizona’s weekly positive rate for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, which shows how much the virus is spreading, declined for seven consecutive weeks but may be leveling off.
For the 12,932 samples taken since Sunday that have been processed and recorded, the positive rate is 6%, 1 point higher than last week.
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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 and the results are documented by the state.
The Arizona health department’s daily reports present case, death and testing 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.
The hospital data posted each morning, however, is reported the previous evening by the hospitals and shows coronavirus-related hospitalizations at or near their lowest points since May.
The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients fell to 895 on Wednesday, the first time since May 25 it was below 900.
The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds ticked up by six to 311, the second-fewest since May 20.
COVID-19 inpatients peaked at 3,517 on July 13, and COVID-19 patients in ICU beds topped out at 970 the same day.
Overall, inpatient beds were 83% full on Wednesday for the second consecutive day. The inpatient occupancy rate peaked at 88% on July 9-10.
The ICU occupancy rate was 80%, 1 point higher than the previous day. It 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 Thursday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- Just hours after Salt River Tubing became eligible to reopen, the attraction said it was too late in the season to resume operations this year.
- Businesses that were closed under executive order can start reopening in metro Phoenix and other regions that met Arizona’s COVID-19 business benchmarks.
- Maricopa County moved closer to returning to in-person learning, meeting two of three coronavirus benchmarks recommended for safely starting in-person learning again.
- There were more than 24.2 million coronavirus cases and 826,000 deaths reported globally as of Thursday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. For the U.S., there were more than 5.8 million cases and 179,000 deaths.
