Arizona reports 5,025 new COVID-19 cases, 22 more deaths

This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Jan. 31, 2021.

PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Sunday reported 5,025 new coronavirus cases and 22 additional deaths from COVID-19.

The state’s documented totals moved to 758,404 infections and 13,120 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.

As of Saturday’s update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Arizona continued to lead the nation in average cases per capita over the last seven days and slipped behind Alabama to No. 2 in deaths.

Key metrics indicate that the massive surge in Arizona that started in November is past its peak, mirroring national trends, but the virus remains widespread across the state.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients fell to 3,664 on Saturday, the fewest since Dec. 13. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients dropped to 979, the fewest since Christmas Day.

Statewide, COVID-19 patients took up 42% of all inpatient beds and 54% of all ICU beds on Saturday. Overall, inpatient beds were 90% full and ICU beds were at 91% of capacity.

Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has been receding but remains at a substantial level.

Of the 97,009 people tested so far this week, 16% received a positive result, which would be the fourth consecutive weekly decline. For 154,860 people tested last week, the positive rate is 19%.

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 seven-day average for the state health department’s newly reported coronavirus cases was at 5,431.71 for Saturday, according to tracking by The Associated Press, the second-lowest mark Dec. 5. The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths declined to 132.57.

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.

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

• Globally, there were about 102.67 million COVID-19 cases and 2.22 million deaths as of Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 26.07 million cases and 439,536 deaths.

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