Medical staff member Tanna Ingraham responds while her patient manages to eat food alone for the first time after intubation tubes were removed on Christmas Day at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center on December 25, 2020. in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura / Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information on the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for December 28, 2020.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials on Monday reported 10,086 new cases of coronavirus and 42 additional deaths, as the number of cases in the state reached half a million.
The state’s documented total rose to 504,423 COVID-19 infections and 8,469 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health’s dashboard.
The department said the new case report, which was the third highest for a single day, included the additions of a few days during the holiday weekend.
Several COVID-19 statistics in Arizona were at or near pandemic highs.
The number of confirmed or suspected patients in Arizona in hospital climbed to a record 4,390 on Sunday, a jump of 200 in 24 hours.
The number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU beds in the state increased to an all-time high of 1,007 on Sunday, reaching quadruple figures for the first time.
Across the country, COVID-19 patients suspect or confirm, a record of 52% of all beds included inpatient admissions and 57% of all ICU beds.
Overall, indoor beds were 90% full and ICU beds were 91% full.
Arizona’s weekly percentage of positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, an indication of how much the virus is spreading in the community, was 23% through 94,911 tests for last week. If it holds, it will break the record of 21% from the week beginning June 28th.
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.
The seven-day moving average for the newly reported cases from the health department was 5,820 for Sunday, according to detection by The Associated Press, the lowest since December 7th.
The average of seven days of newly reported COVID-19 deaths was 65.14, the lowest since December 16th.
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 by 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.
Information about test rooms can be found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website.
Below are Monday’s latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic from across the state, country and world:
- Worldwide, there were approximately 80.88 million COVID-19 cases and 1.76 million deaths as of Monday morning, according to research by Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US were about 19.13 million cases and 333,000 deaths.