Certified medical assistant Mario Rivera applies a Band-Aid after administering the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccination to Anthony Banash at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on January 21, 2021 in Torrance, California. Banash was the first patient to receive the vaccine at the hospital. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond, on January 22, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported on Friday 8,099 new cases of coronavirus and an additional 229 deaths from COVID-19, pushing pandemic totals beyond 700,000 and 12,000.
The state’s documented totals reached 708,041 infections and 12,001 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services COVID-19 panel.
Since Thursday’s update of the US Centers for Disease Control, Arizona has continued to lead the country in per capita cases for the past seven days and regained first place for the death rate. On Wednesday, Arizona was fourth in deaths per capita in the past seven days.
The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have tended to decline from the peak to record levels earlier last week.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona dropped to 4,495 on Thursday, the lowest since December 28. The number of ICU beds used by patients with COVID-19 has dropped to 1,054, the second lowest since December 28.
Suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients across the state occupied 52% of all hospital beds and 58% of all ICU beds on Thursday, both less than 1 percentage point from the previous day.
In general, the hospital beds remained 92% occupied and the ICU beds opened slightly to 91%.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for the COVID-19 diagnostic test, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has dropped since it hit a record high of 24% three weeks ago.
Of the 59,955 people tested this week, 21% received a positive result, one point above last week’s index.
Official positivity rates are based on when samples are collected, not when they are reported, so the percentage over the past few weeks may fluctuate as laboratories update tests and results are documented by the state.
The seven-day moving average for coronavirus cases recently reported by the state health department was 7,271.71 on Thursday, according to the Associated Press tracking, rising from the previous day for the first time since 12 December. January.
The seven-day average of newly reported COVID-19 deaths changed to 153 on Thursday, increasing for the second consecutive day.
Daily state updates show case, death and test data 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 without symptoms – which include, but are not limited to, cough, fever and difficulty breathing – are able to spread the virus.
The diagnostic test is available at hundreds of locations across Arizona and should be sought out by anyone with symptoms or who may have been exposed to an infected person. Information on locations, times and registration can be found on the Department of Health Services website.
The department also has a vaccine location page with a map of active and pending locations and registration information.
Below are Friday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic across the state, country and world:
- With Arizona’s winter wave COVID-19 retreating for the first time in months, Banner Health will cautiously resume elective surgery next week.
- US Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona said KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News he declined the chance to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because “it was scary” to use his position to get to the front of the line.
- The Navajo Nation reported 143 new cases of coronavirus and 14 additional deaths, bringing the documented total to 26,955 infections and 954 deaths.
- Globally, there were about 97.65 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.09 million deaths on Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the US are around 24.63 million cases and 410,000 deaths.