Arizona reports 7,217 COVID-19 cases, 68 more deaths on Sunday

Jan 24, 2021, 8:30 AM | Updated: 7:11 pm

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Jan. 23, 2021.

PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Sunday reported 7,217 new coronavirus cases and 68 additional deaths from COVID-19.

The state’s documented totals moved to 722,574 infections and 12,238 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.

As of Sunday’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 remained in the top spot for the fourth straight day in death rate. On Wednesday, Arizona was fourth in deaths per capita over the last seven days.

The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have been trending downward since spiking to record levels early last week.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients fell to 4,320 on Saturday, the fewest since Dec. 26. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients rose to 1,054.

Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients took up 50% of all inpatient beds and 58% of all ICU beds on Saturday.

Overall, inpatient beds opened up slightly to being 90% full, and ICU beds are 92% full.

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 of 24% three weeks ago.

Of the 112,851 people tested this week, 19% received a positive result, one percentage point lower than last week’s rate.

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 7,316 for Saturday, according to tracking by The Associated Press, decreasing for a second day in a row.

The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths moved to 153.83 for Saturday.

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 information about registration.

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

- The Navajo Nation reported 133 new coronavirus cases and seven additional deaths, bringing the documented totals to 27,484 infections and 973 fatalities.
- Globally, there were about 98.83 million COVID-19 cases and 2.12 million deaths as of Sunday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 24.99 million cases and 417,456 deaths.

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