Arizona reports 864 new coronavirus cases, 6 more deaths

This is a regularly updated story with the latest information, news and updates about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Tuesday, Oct. 6.

PHOENIX – Arizona health authorities reported 864 new coronavirus cases and six additional deaths on Tuesday morning.

That put the state’s documented totals at 221,934 COVID-19 infections and 5,713 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

It was the first daily case report over 800 since Sept. 18.

Multiple key metrics about the severity of Arizona’s pandemic are near the lowest they’ve been in months, but hospitalization numbers have been creeping upward.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospital inpatients was up to 665 on Monday, the most since Sept. 5

The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds has increased slightly for six consecutive days and was up to 138 on Monday. On Sept. 22, it was a pandemic-low 114.

COVID-19 inpatients peaked at 3,517 on July 13, and COVID-19 patients in ICU beds topped out at 970 the same day.

Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing has been at 4% for five consecutive weeks, with 61,604 tests recorded last week.

The positivity rate, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, had been as high as 20% at the end of June.

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 hospitalization data posted each morning, however, is reported the previous evening by the hospitals.

The rolling seven-day average for the state health department’s newly reported cases was 508.57 through Monday, according to tracking by The Associated Press, and has been relatively stable for the past week.

The seven-day average of newly reported deaths was at 12, near the lowest it’s been since early May.

The seven-day case average peaked at 3,844 on July 6, and the death average topped out at 94 on July 30.

As cases skyrocketed in June, local governments in many parts of Arizona — including all of Maricopa County — implemented face mask requirements, and Gov. Doug Ducey issued statewide executive orders to close certain businesses and restrict restaurant occupancy.

The spread of COVID-19 soon slowed and has been steadily falling since the peak of the pandemic. All of Arizona’s counties have hit benchmarks established by the health department that allow certain businesses to reopen under capacity restrictions and other regulations.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel 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.

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Below are Tuesday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:

• Three metro Phoenix bars that were shut down for violating state COVID-19 mandates — Glow Shots & Cocktails in Tempe and Bottled Blonde and Casa Amigos/Skylanes in Scottsdale — have been cleared to reopen, authorities said.
• Globally, there were more than 35.5 million COVID-19 cases and 1.04 million deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the U.S. were around 7.46 million cases and 210,000 deaths.

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