Arizona has become ‘the hottest spot’ for COVID-19 as the state experiences the highest number of people in the world and takes in hospitalizations – and health officials warn that numbers are only going to get worse as a result of holiday gatherings.
Arizona reported 9,909 new COVID-19 cases and 297 new deaths on Thursday, the highest single day to date, though the state health department noticed most were due to the “death certificate compliance process.”
According to Arizona-divoc.com, a COVID-19 tracker, there are the lowest COVID-19 cases worldwide. The state currently has the highest seven-day mean COVID-19 infections per capita of any region in the world, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to The COVID Tracking Project, Arizona also leads the country with hospitalization rates. 4,920 hospitalizations were reported on Thursday – the highest number for the fourth consecutive day.
Concern about staff
According to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services, 7% of the beds for intensive care units were available as of Wednesday.
Banner Health cares for about half of all COVID-19 patients in Arizona, officials said. The situation in the state is beyond an issue, said dr. Marjorie Bessel, chief clinical officer for the hospital system, said during a press conference on Wednesday.
“Hospitals in the state of Arizona are currently very thin, despite a significant amount of preparation and work to increase capacity,” Bessel said.
On January 1, Banner Health canceled elective surgeries at all of its Arizona hospitals. Its occupancy in Arizona is more than 100% of its licensed bed capacity, Bessel said Wednesday, though staffing is the biggest problem.
“We can create beds, we believe,” she said. “It’s the competent staff, that knowledgeable nurse, that wonderful doctor, that incredibly diligent respiratory therapist, it’s the individuals who are very thin at the moment. There’s just not that many in the whole country anymore because they are in every state tries to meet the demands of every community. ‘
Bessel expects hospitalizations to only get worse in the coming weeks due to the ‘stacking effect of Thanksgiving activities, Christmas activities and New Year’s Eve’.
Waiting times are another source of concern as hospitals have to stop patients in emergencies because there are no available ICUs or beds available.
“The wait can take from a few hours to more than 24 to 48 hours in the emergency department until we can move someone from the emergency into a hospital bed,” said Dr. Michael White, clinical director of Valleywise. Health in Maricopa County, said Wednesday during a news conference.
Calls for mitigation and enforcement
As Arizona has become the ‘hottest spot for COVID’, Bessel urges residents to ‘shrink your circles’ to just those in their household, wear a mask with people outside their circle and ‘stop’ attend unmasked gatherings, even if you feel good. “
“It is very likely that someone at those events has the virus, and they are spreading it to you,” she said, noting that the detection of contracts is not beneficial because COVID-19 “is so uncontrolled in our state.”
“We need each and every one of you to do your part so that hospitals can remain open and accessible to all who need health care,” she added.
The health officer also called for increased mitigation measures, such as a mandate for the entire mask, curfew rule and strike of indoor eateries, and the application of existing measures.
The state did not issue a mask mandate, although several cities and provinces did. According to the recent investigation by the Republic of Arizona, quotes for disobeying mask orders were not issued in Tucson, Flagstaff or the Phoenix area’s 12 largest cities.
Government Doug Ducey has also called on local governments to implement measures.
“There are steps in place, and if many of these leaders who reach out and ask for additional action would actually enforce and have accountability around the steps that are already there, we can further reduce the spread of this and save lives,” Ducey said. . said at a press conference last month.
In a January 3 report obtained by ABC News, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said the numbers after the Arizona holiday had “significant concerns” about the spread of COVID-19 in the community, and a combination of aggressive mitigation with further limitations and substantial recommendation recommended. acceleration of vaccinations. “
The Republican governor did not tighten the restrictions, despite calls to do so.
“Strict mitigation measures and states that have more or less mitigation measures in place are all experiencing the same thing,” Ducey spokesman Cce Karamargin told the Associated Press this week. ” The mitigation measures that the state of Arizona put in place early on – they remain in place. We appeal to every Arizonan to follow them. ‘
Focus on vaccinations
The state prioritizes vaccination to combat the pandemic.
“The vaccine will save millions of lives in the future, and that’s our focus today,” Ducey said last month.
According to the state health department, as of Thursday, more than 113,000 people, including medical workers and residents and staff at nursing homes, have been vaccinated.
The goal is to get about 3.5 million people vaccinated, officials said.
Bessel has a concern on vaccination sites, Bessel says. Banner Health operates three vaccination sites throughout the state, requiring hundreds of staff and volunteers each day. Bessel himself was redeployed several times to Banner Health’s vaccination pool at the Arizona State Fairgrounds to administer vaccines, a spokesman for ABC News said.
‘We stretch ourselves as much as possible because we believe it [the] vaccine is the way we get 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. This includes retired medical professionals and people with a medical background.
“When people saw us out here, they wanted to act and volunteer, and that’s exactly what we need,” said Col. Tom Leaper of the U.S. Army, Arizona National Guard, said. “We were contacted by a group of volunteers who said they wanted to help protect their state and their communities, and what they could do to help.”
For now, it is ‘critical’ that people stay at a social distance, White said.
“Although the vaccine is being distributed in our community, it will take months before we can reduce our restrictions,” he said. “If we do not continue to do so, we run the risk of flooding our clinical departments and our hospitals.”
ABC News’s Josh Margolin, Brian Hartman and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.