Arizona reports 6,417 new COVID-19 cases, 1 more death
Jan 19, 2021, 8:26 AM | Updated: Jan 20, 2021, 8:27 am
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Jan. 19, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Tuesday reported 6,417 new coronavirus cases and one additional death from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals moved to 685,699 infections and 11,266 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.
As of Monday’s update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Arizona continued to lead the nation in cases per capita over the last seven days and was tied for first with Alabama for deaths.
The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have been trending downward since spiking to record levels early last week but ticked up Monday.
RELATED STORIES
The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients rose by 28 to 4,780, ending a six-day streak of declines. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients increased by eight to 1,105.
Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients took up 55% of all inpatient beds and 61% of all ICU beds on Monday, same as the previous day.
Overall, inpatient beds and ICU beds were each 92% full.
RELATED STORIES
Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has fallen since hitting an all-time high two weeks ago.
Of the 155,077 people tested last week, 20% received a positive result, down 2 percentage points from the previous 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 cases was at 7,391.57 for Monday, falling for the sixth consecutive day, according to tracking by The Associated Press.
The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths, however, spiked to a record high of 186.5 for Monday.
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 Tuesday’s latest developments about the coronavirus pandemic from around the state, country and world:
- The Navajo Nation reported 45 new coronavirus cases and no recent deaths, bringing the documented totals to 26,517 infections and 922 fatalities.
- The Arizona health department is opening February appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine at the two state-run sites.
- Banner Health hospitals project they’ll admit 396 children with COVID-19 this month, up from October when they had 77 hospitalized children with the disease.
- Globally, there were about 95.68 million COVID-19 cases and 2.04 million deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 24.08 million cases and 399,000 deaths.
