(AP Photo / Lee Jin-man)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond, on December 26, 2020.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 6,106 new cases of coronavirus and 15 additional deaths on Saturday.
The state’s documented totals increased to 493,041 COVID-19 infections and 8,424 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services panel.
Multiple COVID-19 metrics in Arizona were at or near pandemic levels.
The number of confirmed or suspected inpatients at COVID-19 hospital in Arizona dropped to 4,165 on Friday, after a record high of 4,226 on Thursday.
However, the number of patients with COVID-19 in the state’s ICU beds has increased to 983, setting a record for the third time in the past four days.
Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 across the state occupied 49% of all hospital beds, compared with a record of 50% in the previous two days and 55% of all ICU beds.
In general, the hospital beds were 89% occupied and the ICU beds were 91% occupied. The state had 154 unused ICU beds on Friday, 23 more than the day before.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for the COVID-19 diagnostic test, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, was 22% through 76,331 tests this week. If that holds true, it will break the record of 21% for the week that started on June 28th.
Official positivity rates are based on when samples are collected, not when they are reported, so the percentage of the past few weeks may fluctuate as laboratories update tests and results are documented by the state.
The seven-day moving average for cases recently reported by the health department was 6,323 on Friday, according to the Associated Press tracking, almost 150 less than on Thursday.
The seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths recently reported was 84.29 on Friday, decreasing for the third consecutive day, but still the ninth highest of all time.
The daily updates present data on cases, deaths and tests after the state receives the statistics and confirms them, which can take several days or more. They do not represent actual activity in the past 24 hours.
Hospitalization data published every morning is reported electronically the night before by 100 hospitals across the state, as required by the executive order.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has no impact on some people and is severely debilitating or fatal for others. Infected people with no symptoms – which include, but are not limited to cough, fever and difficulty breathing – are able to spread the virus.
Information about the test locations can be found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website.