A COVID-19 patient, placed on a ventilator, rests at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange, California. Thursday, January 7, 2021. California health officials reported on Thursday a two-day record total of 1,042 deaths from coronavirus, like many hospitals under stress unprecedented case numbers. (AP Photo / Jae C. Hong)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for January 8, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported on Friday 11,658 new cases of coronavirus and 197 additional deaths from COVID-19.
It was the third highest daily notification of deaths, with the first three occurring since Tuesday.
The state’s documented total rose to 596,251 COVID-19 infections and 9,938 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services panel.
As of Thursday, Arizona had the second highest rate of coronavirus cases, after New Jersey after several days in first place, and the third highest mortality rate per capita nationally in the last seven days, according to the Centers of US Disease Control.
Arizona hospitals continued to see record numbers or near records of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients.
The number of patients admitted to Arizona’s COVID-19 hospital fell to 4,907 on Thursday, 13 below the record set a day earlier and the second highest of all time.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in the state’s ICU beds rose to a record 1,122, 21 more than the mark set a day earlier.
Suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients across the state occupied a record 57% of all hospital beds and a record 63% of all ICU beds.
In general, inpatient beds and ICU beds were each 93% occupied, corresponding to pandemic increases. Only 131 ICU beds were unused.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for the COVID-19 diagnostic test, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, is the highest ever.
So far this week, 26% of the 70,526 people tested have tested positive. The positivity percentage was a record 25% last week.
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 health department was 9,198 on Thursday, the highest ever and the first time above 9,000, according to the Associated Press tracking.
The seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths recently reported was 125.29 on Thursday, more than 20 more than the previous day’s record.
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.
Below are Friday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic across the state, country and world:
- Globally, there were about 88.2 million cases of COVID-19 and 1.9 million deaths on Friday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University research. The figures for the US are around 21.59 million cases and 365,000 deaths.