PHOENIX – For the second time during the pandemic, Arizona leads the world with the highest average of seven days of COVID-19 infections per capita.
According to 91-divoc.com, a COVID-19 tracking site that uses data from John Hopkins University, Arizona currently has the highest per capita rate of COVID-19 of any region in the world.
The state is reporting 121.8 COVID-19 cases recently confirmed in the last seven days by 100,000 people. California, the state with the second highest number of new cases confirmed in the last seven days by 100,000 people, reaches 97.8.
The site also tracks COVID-19 infections worldwide using the same metric per capita used by the United States. The Czech Republic has the highest number of new COVID-19 infections of any sovereign state, 93.4.
The United States is showing a rate of 64.8, the sixth highest in any country.
Dividing the Numbers
Arizona has been in this position before. The state registered 52.8 on July 7, at the height of the summer peak on this same metric, which was higher than any other jurisdiction tracked at the time. Although Arizona is at the top of the states today, it is still far behind North Dakota’s record rate of 184.8 cases per capita recorded on November 19.
In the past seven days, there has been an increase in the number of positive tests reported in Arizona, which would represent per capita ratings.
57,119 cases were reported by AZDHS between 29 December and 4 January.
This represents an increase of 32% in relation to 43,078 cases registered between 22 and 28 December. Before that, the state recorded only marginal growth of 5%, week after week.
So far, the last seven days of notification have been the highest in the state’s pandemic, with the week of December 8 to 14 being the second, with 54,405 infections added to the state total.
What this means?
The implications of higher case counts are transferred to the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths as COVID-19 spreads through the community.
Although many cases turn out to be mild, seven percent of them required some form of hospitalization during the illness.
As cases increase, especially in age groups considered to be at high risk, this overloads an already worn out hospital system.
The state has reported record high utilization of hospital assets by COVID-19 patients for several weeks. The use of ICU beds in all Arizona hospital systems has been over 90% since November 29.