Arizona reports 11,094 new COVID-19 cases, 98 more deaths
Jan 9, 2021, 8:31 AM | Updated: 7:08 pm
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Jan 9, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Saturday reported 11,094 new coronavirus cases and 98 additional deaths from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals moved to 607,345 COVID-19 infections and 10,036 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services dashboard.
As of Friday, Arizona had the highest coronavirus case rate, and second-highest death rate per capita nationally in the last seven days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
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Arizona’s hospitals continued to see record or near-record numbers of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients.
The number of Arizona’s COVID-19 hospital inpatients rose by 11 to 4,918 on Friday, two below the record set a day earlier and the second-most ever.
The number of COVID-19 patients in the state’s ICU beds fell to 1,121, down 1 from the number in use on Thursday.
Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients took up a record-tying 57% of all inpatient beds and 62% of all ICU beds.
Overall, inpatient beds beds were each 93% full, matching the pandemic high, with 92% of ICU bed in use. Only 138 ICU beds were unused.
Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, is the highest it’s ever been.
So far this week, 25% of the 105,565 people who were tested got a positive result. The percent positivity was a record 25% last 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 coronavirus cases was 9,426.29 for Friday, the highest ever and the second-consecutive day above 9,000, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths was 131.86 for Friday, more than six higher than the previous day’s record.
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.
Diagnostic testing is available at hundreds of locations across Arizona and should be sought out by anybody with symptoms or who may have been exposed to an infected person. Information about locations, schedules and registration can be found on the Department of Health Services website.
Below are Saturday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- The Navajo Nation reported 175 new coronavirus cases and three more deaths, bringing the documented totals to 24,979 infections and 869 fatalities.
- Globally, there were about 89 million COVID-19 cases and 1.91 million deaths as of Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 21.87 million cases and 368,947 deaths.
