Arizona weekly COVID-19 update adds 3,402 cases, 44 deaths
Reported COVID-19 cases in Arizona last week dropped again from the week prior to mark the lowest report since April, according to the state’s latest weekly update.
Health officials on Wednesday added 3,402 new COVID-19 cases and 44 new known deaths over the weeklong period ending Sept. 24. Recent weeks have seen relatively lower reported case counts.
Case counts are far below the winter, state data shows. Case numbers in recent months likely are not showing the full picture of infections as many more people have used at-home test kits and may not report positive results to their doctors or county health departments.
Some epidemiologists are predicting another wave of infections this fall and winter.
New Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna booster formulations of the COVID-19 vaccine that specifically target omicron subvariants were granted emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the end of August. The Moderna version is for anyone age 18 and older, while the Pfizer version is for individuals 12 years and older.
Arizona, like other states, has seen elevated cases largely driven by two contagious subvariants of the virus, BA.4 and BA.5, with BA.5 the more dominant of the two. It’s also likely contributing to reinfections given its contagiousness and ability to evade antibodies.
The U.S. reported 15,850 deaths from COVID-19 in August, which was the highest national toll in several months, according to USA TODAY.
All 15 Arizona counties were designated as “low” in terms of COVID-19 levels, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Sept. 22. No counties were “high,” at which point the CDC recommends people wear face masks indoors in public.
The CDC’s “community level” guidance metrics are based on a county’s COVID-19 hospital bed use, COVID-19 hospital admissions and case rates for the virus over the past week.
Reported cases since the pandemic began are over 2.2 million. Known deaths in Arizona are approaching 31,400.
Wednesday marked the 31st of the weekly updates to the state’s data dashboard, instead of daily updates that Arizonans became accustomed to following for the latest data on infections, illnesses and deaths.
The previous week’s update added 3,999 cases and 82 deaths, compared with 6,119 cases and 82 deaths three weeks ago and 3,666 cases and 48 deaths four weeks ago.
This week’s update shows the differences between data reported for the week of Sept. 18-24 and Sept. 11-17.
Health officials say weekly updates match how public health monitors trends and other disease reporting.
Case numbers generally were relatively lower in the past couple of months, and public health experts estimate cases of the highly contagious omicron variant peaked in Arizona around mid-January.
The state data dashboard no longer shows key hospitalization information since Gov. Doug Ducey ended the COVID-19 emergency declaration on March 30. State health officials said hospitals are no longer required to report some COVID-19 surveillance data to the state, meaning certain graphs showing weekly hospitalization levels for the disease and bed usage by COVID-19…
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