Volunteers walk into a Six Flags Magic Mountain parking lot on February 2, 2020 in Valencia, California, as people who have already received vaccinations in vehicles at a COVID-19 mass drive-in vaccination. The site is in one of the five major coronavirus vaccination sites operated by Los Angeles County. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for February 3, 2021.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 2,296 new cases of coronavirus and 214 additional deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday.
This is the lowest daily report since December 27 and the third lowest since November. It is also the first time since November 16-17 with less than 3,000 cases reported for two consecutive days.
According to the Arizona COVID-19 dashboard, the state’s documented total moved to 767,379 infections and 13,576 deaths.
While measures show that the massive boom in Arizona that began in November is slowing, the virus remains widespread in the state.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are now lower than at the July high of the state’s first wave, but cases and deaths are still higher.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients in Arizona dropped to 3,456 on Tuesday, the lowest since December 9th. The number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients increased by 11 to 955, the second least since December 21st.
Across the country, COVID-19 patients admitted 40% of all beds and 53% of all ICU beds on Tuesday. Overall, indoor beds were 90% of capacity and ICU beds 91%.
Arizona’s weekly percentage of positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, an indication of how much the virus is spreading in the community, is declining but remains at a significant level.
Of the 125,134 people tested last week, 16% had a positive result, the lowest rate since Thanksgiving and the fourth consecutive decline.
So far this week, the recorded positive rate is 14% for 12,158 people tested.
Official positivity rates are based on when the samples are taken, not when they are reported, so the percentage for recent weeks may vary as laboratories are caught up in the test and the results are documented by the state.
In Tuesday’s update of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Arizona has fallen from first to third place in the country on average per capita over the past seven days, behind Texas and South Carolina. Arizona fell from third to fourth in deaths, behind Alabama, South Carolina and Iowa.
According to the Associated Press, the seven-day average for the recently reported coronavirus cases was 4,634.29 for Tuesday. The seven-day average of newly reported deaths tipped for the second time in a row to 130.57.
The state’s daily updates provide the current case, death and testing data after the state receives and confirms statistics, which may be delayed by a few days or longer. It does not represent the actual activity during the last 24 hours.
The hospital data posted each morning is electronically reported the night before by 100 hospitals across the state, as required under executive order.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has no effect on some people and is severely debilitating or deadly to others. Infected people without symptoms – which include coughing, fever and breathing problems – can spread the virus.
Diagnostic tests are available in hundreds of locations in Arizona and should be sought by someone with symptoms or who has been exposed to an infected person. Information on places, schedules and registration can be found on the website of the Department of Health Services.
The department also has a vaccination finder page with a map with locations and registration information.
Below are Wednesday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic from across the state, country and world:
- Maricopa County Public Health said some unused coronavirus vaccines were discarded, but only to maintain quality and safety.
- Nothing short of a miracle is how a Valley doctor described the recovery of a COVID-19 patient who spent more than four months in the hospital.
- With greater demand, the city of Phoenix has introduced its second COVID-19 mobile testing unit.
- President Joe Biden’s administration has announced it will expand to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, release more doses for states and begin distributing to retail pharmacies next week.
- Worldwide, there were approximately 103.98 million COVID-19 cases and 2.26 million deaths as of Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US were about 26.44 million cases and 447,000 deaths.