Arizona reports 1,791 new COVID-19 cases, 114 more deaths Saturday

This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for Feb. 13, 2021.

PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Saturday reported 1,791 new coronavirus cases and 114 additional deaths from COVID-19.

The state’s documented totals moved to 795,323 infections and 14,948 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 dashboard.

The virus remains widespread across the state, although the surge that made Arizona the nation’s hot spot last month is receding, mirroring a trend seen across the nation.

COVID-19 hospitalizations and daily case averages are now lower than they were at the July peak of the state’s first wave, but the death pace remains higher.

The number of Arizona’s confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients fell to 2,300 on Friday, the fewest since Nov. 25. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients dipped to 701, tying the fewest since Dec. 4.

Statewide, COVID-19 patients took up 27% of all inpatient beds and 39% of all ICU beds on Friday. Overall, inpatient beds were at 89% of capacity and ICU beds at 87%.

Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic testing, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has declined every week since it peaked at 24% for the week starting Dec. 27.

Of the 56,398 people tested so far this week, 9% received a positive result. The percent positivity was 12% for 109,361 people tested 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 seven-day average for the state health department’s newly reported coronavirus cases was 2,558.57 for Friday, according to tracking by The Associated Press, the second-lowest mark since Nov. 17.

The seven-day average of newly reported deaths hasn’t changed much since the start of February and was 126.57 for Friday.

In Friday’s update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Arizona ranked fourth in the nation for COVID-19 deaths per capita over the last seven days and dropped from seventh to 12th in cases.

The Arizona health department’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.

For more information about statewide vaccine availability, the ADHS website has a vaccine-finder page with a map of 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 109.3 million COVID-19 cases and 2.38 million deaths as of Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the U.S. were around 27.49 million cases and 480,000 deaths.
• Defense lawyers say people charged with crimes are reluctant to accept plea offers out of fear that they might be exposed to COVID-19 if they were sentenced to Arizona’s prisons.

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