The Arizona Department of Health Services is reporting over 112,000 cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday morning.

In Arizona, there are 112,671 cases and 2,038 deaths of the novel coronavirus, up 4,057 and 75 from Wednesday morning, respectively. That computes to a 1.81% death rate of confirmed cases in the state.

Arizona is one of nine states with over 100,000 cases after Georgia surpassed that marked Tuesday. Arizona is the 14th most populous state in the nation.

Maricopa County shows a case rate of 1,631 cases per 100,000 residents, using 2019 Census Bureau estimates. The state average is 1,545. Santa Cruz County has the highest at 4,506 cases per 100,000 residents.

The coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough for most people.

But for some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness including pneumonia, and death.

Trends in coronavirus cases

An analysis of figures by Capitol Media Services shows that there were nearly 27,000 new confirmed cases in the most recent seven-day period available.

Looking at it another way, that computes out to nearly 3,700 new infections this past week for every million Arizona residents.

The New York Times, looking at its own data set, puts the figure at closer to 3,300. But even at that, the paper says the rate of new infections here, computed at a rate of per million residents, is higher not just than any state in the country but any other country in the world.

Gubernatorial press aide Patrick Ptak called that conclusion “misleading and inaccurate.” And part of that, he said, is that Arizona is doing so much more testing than other countries.

But other data analyzed by Capitol Media Services shows the trend is not headed in the right direction.

Upcoming court battle

In a new filing Wednesday, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said that the claims by Xponential Fitness against the governor "raise serious issues of first impression involving executive authority in an emergency." More to the point, he said these "deserve close and careful consideration by the court."

But Mr. Brnovich does not want to be involved in the dispute that will play out this coming week before Judge Diane Humetewa.

He pointed out that attorneys for the chain of fitness centers sued not just Doug Ducey over the legality of his order but also the state. And Mr. Brnovich is required to defend the state.

Only thing is, the attorney general says the state has “sovereign immunity” from these kinds of federal court lawsuits.

Census ops picking up amid COVID-19

Since COVID-19 started to have a greater effect on the country in March, the Census Bureau has had to adjust operations to protect the health and safety of employees and the public.

Most notable are the changes to the end of the self-response phase, which is now Oct. 31 as opposed to July 31. That has meant having to shift the delivery of apportionment counts to the president and redistricting counts to the states, initially slated for Dec. 31 and April 1, 2021, respectively. However, the Census Bureau has requested those dates now be April 30 and July 31, 2021, respectively.

Also, census workers will now be conducting the Nonresponse Followup Operation from Aug. 11-Oct. 31. Between 248 area census offices and 500,000 employees, the Census Bureau is conducting soft launches of NRFU to ensure the full operation runs smoothly when it begins in August.