Arizona reports 7,311 new COVID-19 cases, 182 additional deaths
Jan 14, 2021, 8:27 AM | Updated: 7:47 pm
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Thursday programming note for KTAR News 92.3 FM, our app or online: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at 8:30 a.m.; Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ at 10:05 a.m.
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Jan. 14, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Thursday reported 7,311 new coronavirus cases and 182 additional deaths from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals moved to 649,040 COVID-19 infections and 10,855 fatalities, according to the health department’s dashboard.
As of Wednesday, Arizona was No. 1 nationally for both cases and deaths per capita over the last seven days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
As the state moves to ramp up vaccine access, the number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona’s hospitals remains near record levels.
The number of Arizona’s COVID-19 hospital inpatients declined for the second consecutive day to 4,930 on Wednesday, the fewest since Jan. 8. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients increased to 1,167, the second-most ever.
Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients took up 57% of all inpatient beds and 65% of all ICU beds, both just below record levels.
Overall, inpatient beds were 92% filled and ICU beds were a record-tying 93% full on Wednesday. Just 122 ICU beds remained available, the second-fewest of the pandemic.
Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, fell slightly last week.
Of the 204,097 people who were tested last week, 22% received a positive result, down 2 percentage points from the previous week’s record level. The positive rate is 20% for the 39,758 people who have been tested 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 state health department’s newly reported coronavirus was at 9,578.43 for Wednesday, down from the previous day’s record level but the third-highest ever, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths set a record for the eighth consecutive day Wednesday at 175.57, more than doubling the rate recorded just nine days earlier.
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.
The department also has a vaccine-finder page with a map of active and pending locations and links to registration websites.
Below are Thursday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- The Navajo Nation reported 202 new coronavirus cases and 13 additional deaths, bringing the documented totals to 25,952 infections and 892 fatalities.
- Maricopa County health officials announced the county would not lower the coronavirus vaccine eligibility age from 75 to 65 at its county-run sites despite new recommendations from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
- As Arizona forges ahead with plans to expand COVID-19 vaccine distribution, top state officials are concerned about running out of doses.
- Gov. Doug Ducey told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Mike Broomhead Show that “vaccination is our only solution” when it comes to Arizona’s COVID-19 crisis.
- The number of people seeking unemployment aid soared last week to 965,000, the most since late August and a sign that the resurgent virus has likely escalated layoffs.
- Phoenix Municipal Stadium will open in February as the Valley’s second state-run mass COVID-19 vaccination site.
- Globally, there were about 92.48 million COVID-19 cases and 1.98 million deaths as of Thursday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 23.08 million cases and 384,000 deaths.