A nurse prepares a syringe of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine during a national vaccination campaign at Saint George’s Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, February 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Hussein Malla)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond, on February 16, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 1,132 new cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, the lowest in a day since November, and three additional deaths from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals reached 799,740 infections and 14,981 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 panel.
COVID-19 hospitalizations and daily case averages have been steadily declining in the past month, but the rate of mortality remains higher than during the Arizona summer wave.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona dropped to 2,047 on Monday, the lowest since November 22. The number of ICU beds used by patients with COVID-19 has decreased to 601, the lowest since November 30.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for the COVID-19 diagnostic test, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has decreased every week since the beginning of 2021.
Of the 88,218 people tested last week, 9% tested positive, the lowest rate since the end of October.
Official positivity rates are based on when samples are taken, 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 average for new coronavirus cases reported by the state health department was 2,245.86 on Monday, according to the Associated Press tracking, the second lowest since November 14.
The seven-day average of recently reported deaths has remained stubbornly high since the beginning of February and was 131.96 on Monday.
In Monday’s update of the US Centers for Disease Control, Arizona ranked third in the country in deaths from COVID-19 per capita in the last seven days and 13th in cases.
Daily updates from the Arizona Department of Health 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 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 in 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.
For more information on vaccine availability across the state, the ADHS website has a vaccine location page with a map of locations and registration information.
Below are the latest developments on Tuesday about the coronavirus pandemic across the state, country and world:
- Winter weather impacting much of the country delayed this week’s shipment of COVID-19 vaccine to Arizona and forced the cancellation of some consultations.
- The Navajo Nation reported 24 new cases of coronavirus and no additional deaths, bringing the documented totals to 29,308 infections – including one delayed case – and 1,112 deaths.
- The Pima County Department of Health has announced that pre-registration for COVID-19 vaccination appointments will be expanded in County-supported locations for people over 65, starting at 9 am on Thursday.
- All nearly 12,000 new consultations for the state-run COVID-19 vaccination site at the University of Arizona were canceled in about 2.5 hours.
- The Arizona Department of Health Services reported that 1,227,271 of the 1,395,300 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine allocated in the state were administered, an increase of 10,145 over the previous day.
- Globally, there were about 109.25 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.41 million deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US are around 27.7 million cases and 486,000 deaths.