Wake County Health Department staff, along with nurses and volunteers from area hospitals and emergency services, assist during a COVID-19 drive-thru vaccination event at the PNC arena in Raleigh, NC, Thursday, 11 February 2021. Two months after the first COVID With 19 injections, the race to vaccinate older Americans is gaining momentum, with more than half of the states reporting that a third of people 65 and older have received their first dose. (AP Photo / Gerry Broome)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond on February 12, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Friday reported 2,426 new cases of coronavirus and 172 additional deaths from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals reached 793,532 infections and 14,834 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 panel.
The virus remains widespread throughout the state, although the increase that made Arizona the country’s hot spot last month is decreasing, reflecting a trend seen across the country.
COVID-19 hospitalizations and daily case averages are now lower than at the July peak of the state’s first wave, but the rate of mortality remains higher.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients in Arizona dropped to 2,396 on Thursday, the lowest since November 27. The number of ICU beds used by patients with COVID-19 has dropped to 705, the lowest since December 4.
Across the state, patients with COVID-19 occupied 28% of all hospital beds and 39% of all ICU beds on Thursday. In general, hospital beds were at 90% of capacity and ICU beds at 87%.
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 it peaked at 24% in the week that started on December 27.
Of the 40,925 people tested so far this week, 9% have received a positive result. The percentage of positivity was 12% for 109,361 people tested last week.
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 newly reported coronavirus cases by the state health department was 2,758.57 on Thursday, according to the Associated Press tracking, the second lowest since November 18.
The seven-day average of deaths recently reported has not changed much since the beginning of February and was 130 on Thursday.
In Thursday’s update of the US Centers for Disease Control, Arizona ranked fourth in the country in deaths from COVID-19 per capita in the past seven days and seventh 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 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.
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 Friday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic across the state, country and world:
- The Navajo Nation reported 66 new cases of coronavirus and 6 additional deaths, bringing the documented total to 29,167 infections – including three delayed cases – and 1,103 deaths.
- The Phoenix Union High School District said its winter sports season, delayed as a precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been canceled.
- United States Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona does not believe that a provision to raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 belongs to the next COVID aid package.
- The Arizona Department of Health Services reported that 1,096,126 of the 1,220,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine allocated in the state were administered, an increase of more than 50,000 over the previous day.
- A professor at Arizona State University says that smokers are at high risk for more serious effects of COVID-19 due to the damage already done to the lungs by smoking.
- President Joe Biden said the United States will have a sufficient supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.
- Globally, there were about 107.9 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.37 million deaths on Friday morning, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US are around 27.39 million cases and 475,000 deaths.