Arizona reports 5,267 new coronavirus cases, 78 more deaths
Dec 30, 2020, 8:27 AM | Updated: 5:31 pm
Dr. Joseph Varon enters the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on December 29, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
(Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Dec. 30, 2020.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 5,267 new coronavirus cases and 78 additional deaths on Wednesday.
The state’s documented totals increased to 512,489 COVID-19 infections and 8,718 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services dashboard.
Multiple COVID-19 metrics in Arizona have been at or near pandemic highs.
The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospital inpatients climbed to a record 4,526 on Tuesday, a 97% increase since Thanksgiving Day.
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The number of COVID-19 patients in the state’s ICU beds increased to 1,076 on Tuesday, the sixth consecutive day with a record high.
Ventilator use and emergency room visits by confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients also reached record highs Tuesday.
Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients took up 53% of all inpatient beds and 61% of all ICU beds, both records.
Overall, inpatient beds were 91% and ICU beds were 90% full.
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The rising tide of COVID-19 patients is squeezing the space left for other patients in Arizona’s hospitals. Only 39% of all inpatients were non-COVID on Tuesday, the second-lowest rate of the pandemic. For ICU beds, 29% were non-COVID, the lowest rate recorded.
Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, was 22% through 113,233 tests for last week. If that holds up, it will break the record of 21% from the week starting June 28.
The percent positivity is up to 27% through 15,433 tests this week.
Official positivity 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 rolling seven-day average for the health department’s newly reported cases was 5,715.29 for Tuesday, the lowest seen since Dec. 7, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths rose to 73.57 for Tuesday, increasing for the second consecutive day following a five-day streak of declines.
The state’s daily updates 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 is reported electronically the previous evening by 100 hospitals across the state, as required under executive order.
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.
Information about testing locations can be found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website.
Below are Wednesday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- The Navajo Nation reported 225 new coronavirus cases and two additional deaths, bringing the documented totals to 22,776 infections and 783 fatalities.
- Banner Health is pausing all elective surgeries starting Friday to handle the rise in coronavirus patients.
- Dawn Wells, who played the wholesome Mary Ann among a misfit band of shipwrecked castaways on the 1960s sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” died of causes related to COVID-19, her publicist said.
- The first person in the U.S. known to be infected with a new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus was identified as a Colorado National Guardsman who had been sent to help out at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak.
- Gov. Doug Ducey announced that Arizona’s three public universities will be receiving $115 million for their ongoing efforts in the state’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
- Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport announced that all ticketed passengers will now have the ability to receive a free coronavirus test upon arrival.
- President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks all but died as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed an alternative approach of loading up the bill with other White House priorities that appeared destined to fail.
- Britain authorized an easy-to-handle coronavirus vaccine and decided to stretch out the time between doses to allow more people to get some level of protection faster as infections surge.
- Globally, there were about 82.11 million COVID-19 cases and 1.79 million deaths as of Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 19.52 million cases and 338,000 deaths.
