(AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond, on January 31, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Sunday reported 5,025 new cases of coronavirus and 22 additional deaths from COVID-19.
The state’s documented totals reached 758,404 infections and 13,120 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ COVID-19 panel.
In Saturday’s update of the United States’ Centers for Disease Control, Arizona continued to lead the country in average cases per capita for the past seven days and fell behind Alabama to second place in deaths.
Important metrics indicate that the massive increase in Arizona, which began in November, has passed its peak, reflecting national trends, but the virus remains widespread throughout the state.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients in Arizona dropped to 3,664 on Saturday, the lowest since December 13. The number of ICU beds used by patients with COVID-19 has dropped to 979, the lowest since Christmas Day.
Across the state, patients with COVID-19 occupied 42% of all hospital beds and 54% of all ICU beds on Saturday. In general, the hospital beds were 90% full and the ICU beds were 91% full.
Arizona’s weekly positivity percentage for the COVID-19 diagnostic test, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, has declined, but remains at a substantial level.
Of the 97,009 people tested so far this week, 16% had a positive result, which would be the fourth consecutive weekly drop. For 154,860 people tested last week, the positive rate is 19%.
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 5,431.71 on Saturday, according to tracking by The Associated Press, the second lowest mark on December 5. to 132.57.
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 Saturday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic across the state, country and world:
- Globally, there were about 102.67 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.22 million deaths on Saturday morning, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US are around 26.07 million cases and 439,536 deaths.