Arizona has become “the hottest hot spot” for COVID-19, as the state experiences the highest case rates in the world and records hospitalizations – and health officials warn that the numbers will only get worse due to holidays.
Arizona reported 9,909 new cases of COVID-19 and 297 new deaths on Thursday, the highest single-day count so far, although the state health department noticed most were due to the “death certificate correspondence process”.
Arizona has the worst rates of COVID-19 cases worldwide, according to 91-divoc.com, a COVID-19 tracker. The state currently has the highest seven-day average of COVID-19 infections per capita of any region in the world, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
Arizona also leads the country in hospitalization rates, according to The COVID Tracking Project. There were 4,920 hospitalizations reported Thursday – the highest number for the fourth consecutive day.
Personnel concerns
Across the state, 7% of beds in intensive care units were available on Wednesday, according to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Banner Health cares for about half of all COVID-19 patients in Arizona, officials said. The situation in the state is “beyond worrying,” said Dr. Marjorie Bessel, clinical head of the hospital system, during a news conference on Wednesday.
“Hospitals in the state of Arizona are very limited now, despite a considerable amount of preparation and work to increase capacity,” said Bessel.
Banner Health canceled elective surgery in all of its Arizona hospitals on January 1. Its occupancy in Arizona is over 100% of the licensed bed capacity, Bessel said on Wednesday, although the team is the system’s biggest concern.
“We can create beds, we believe,” she said. “It’s the qualified staff, that experienced nurse, that wonderful doctor, that incredibly diligent respiratory therapist, these are the individuals who are really exhausted now. And there just aren’t many more of them across the country, because they’re implanted in every state trying to meet the demands of each community. “
Bessel predicts that hospitalizations will only get worse in the coming weeks due to the “accumulation effect of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve activities”.
Waiting times are another concern, as hospitals may have to keep patients in emergency rooms because there is no ICU with staff available or hospital beds.
“The wait can be anywhere from a few hours to more than 24 to 48 hours in the emergency department until we can move someone from the emergency department to a hospital bed,” Dr. Michael White, clinical director of Valleywise Health in Maricopa County, said during a news conference on Wednesday.
Mitigation requests – and enforcement
As Arizona has become the “hottest spot for COVID,” Bessel is asking residents to “narrow their circle” to just those in their home, wear a mask with people outside their circle, and “stop attending unmasked meetings. , even if you feel good. “
“It is very likely that someone at these meetings has the virus and is spreading it to you,” she said, noting that contract tracking is not beneficial because COVID-19 “is very uncontrolled in our state.”
“We need each of you to do your part so that hospitals can remain open and accessible to all those in need of health care,” he added.
The health official also called for greater mitigation measures, such as a statewide mask mandate, curfew and suspension of meals indoors, and application of existing measures.
The state has not issued a masking warrant, although several cities and counties have. Citations for disregarding mask orders were not issued in Tucson, Flagstaff or the 12 largest cities in the Phoenix area, according to a recent investigation by Arizona Republic.
Governor Doug Ducey also called on local governments to implement measures.
“There are steps in place, and if many of those leaders who are reaching out and asking for additional actions really apply and have responsibility around the steps that already exist, we can further reduce the spread of this and save lives,” Ducey said last month in a statement. Press conference.
In a January 3 report obtained by ABC News, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said that Arizona’s post-holiday figures “raise significant concerns” about the spread of COVID-19 by the community and recommended a “combination of aggressive mitigation with additional restrictions and substantial acceleration of vaccinations. “
The Republican governor did not tighten the restrictions, despite calls to do so.
“In the face of stringent mitigation measures in place and states that have few or minimal mitigation measures in place, everyone is experiencing the same thing,” Ducey’s spokesman, CJ Karamargin, told the Associated Press this week. “The mitigation measures that the state of Arizona implemented early on – they remain in place. We urge all Arizonans to follow them.”
Focus on vaccinations
The state has prioritized vaccination to combat the pandemic.
“The vaccine will save millions of lives in the future, and that is our focus today,” said Ducey last month.
More than 113,000 people as of Thursday, including frontline health professionals and residents and nursing staff, have been vaccinated in Arizona, according to the state health department.
The goal is to vaccinate about 3.5 million people, officials said.
Personnel is a concern at vaccination sites, said Bessel. Banner Health is operating three vaccination sites across the state, requiring hundreds of employees and volunteers each day. Bessel herself has been moved to Banner Health’s vaccination pod at the Arizona State Fairgrounds several times to administer vaccines, a spokesman told ABC News.
“We are trying as hard as possible because we believe that [the] the vaccine is the way out of the pandemic, ”she said.
Volunteers trained by the Arizona National Guard began administering the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday and supporting vaccination sites in Arizona, officials said. They include retired medical professionals and people with medical training.
“When people saw us here, they wanted to volunteer, which is exactly what we need,” US Army Colonel Tom Leaper, a state surgeon in the Arizona National Guard, told Phoenix ABC affiliate KNXV. “We were contacted by a group of volunteers who said they wanted to help protect their state and their communities, and what they can do to help.”
For now, it is “critically important” that people continue to distance themselves socially, White said.
“Even if the vaccine is starting to be distributed in our community, it will be months before we can ease our restrictions,” he said. “If we don’t continue to do that, we risk overburdening our clinical departments and hospitals.”
Josh Margolin, Brian Hartman and Eric Strauss of ABC News contributed to this report.