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Arizona tops 63,000 cases of coronavirus

Posted 6/24/20

Arizona has topped 63,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, there are 63,030 cases and 1,490 deaths of COVID-19 as of Thursday morning, up …

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Arizona tops 63,000 cases of coronavirus

Posted

Arizona has topped 63,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, there are 63,030 cases and 1,490 deaths of COVID-19 as of Thursday morning, up 3,056 and 27, respectively, from Tuesday.

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health reports 36,890 cases and 658 deaths in Arizona’s most populous county.

The numbers of cases per 100,000 residents in the state is 866 as of Thursday, using 2019 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Maricopa County is below that at 828. Santa Cruz County is at 3,413 cases per 100,000 residents, the highest in the state. Navajo and Apache counties, which include parts of the Navajo Nation, are at 2,985 and 3,109 per 100,000 residents, respectively.

The AZDHS reported a record 2,453 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, including 611 in intensive care beds and a record 415 on ventilators.

The hospitalization count was up from 2,270 as of Tuesday.

Arizona has become a national hotspot for the coronavirus since Republican Gov. Doug Ducey lifted stay-home restrictions in May.

Health officials have attributed Arizona's rising number of cases to both increased testing and community spread of the disease.

Mr. Ducey last week allowed counties and municipalities to require people to wear face coverings in public, and many have done so, including local governments in metro Phoenix.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. But for some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

Traveling Northeast?

The chief executives of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut announced Wednesday they would require a 14-day quarantine for visitors arriving from states which have “significant community spread.” The definition they chose includes Arizona. And that, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, includes Arizona and eight other states.

The order was to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, June 25.

If the verbiage used by Mr. Cuomo sounds familiar, it should.

In April, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered a similar two-week quarantine for visitors to Arizona from areas with what he described as “substantial community spread.”

Mr. Ducey said at the time that his powers under state emergency laws allow him to tell new arrivals that they must go directly to their place of isolation or self-quarantine “and only leave that location for essential services.” And he said the move was aimed at the tri-state area of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York because it has become of COVID-19 hotspot.

That Arizona order has since expired as infection rates in those states have gone down.

But just the reverse is happening here.