Arizona Covid back on rise, official says ‘Pandemic not done with us’
PHOENIX (AP) — Some COVID-19 metrics show the pandemic’s fall surge in Arizona worsening again.
The state on Wednesday reported over 3,000 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases for the sixth time in seven days as virus-related hospitalizations topped 2,000 for the first time since mid-September.
And every county in the state has substantial or high COVID-19 transmission, the Department of Health Services said on Twitter.
“The unfortunate truth, however, is the pandemic isn’t done with us,′ said Don Herrington, the department’s acting director. “Recent case numbers bear this out.”
Case numbers dropped steadily starting in mid-August before starting to rise again in October in the state’s two most populous counties — Maricopa and Pima — and several rural counties, Herrington said in a blog post Tuesday.
The additional 3,794 cases and 39 deaths reported by the department’s Coronavirus dashboard raised the state’s pandemic totals to 1,199,277 cases and 21,525 deaths.
The 2,026 COVID-19 patients occupying inpatient beds as of Tuesday were the most since 2,034 on Sept. 16, according to the dashboard.
In Yuma County, there are 20 new cases to report and thankfully no new deaths.
Although this is relatively low compared to the past couple weeks, there are currently 57 people hospitalized at Yuma Regional Medical Center with the virus.
Among them, 48 are unvaccinated and 17 are in the ICU.
To clarify, this means there are people who are vaccinated, who still had to be hospitalized after contracting the virus and because local hospitalizations are back on the rise, the hospital tightened its visitor restrictions on Wednesday.
