Maricopa County saw another uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases reported on Wednesday, though it was a slightly lower number than the weekend’s average.

At the same time, deaths reported from the coronavirus were up sharply over the recent seven-day average.

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health reported 4,648 new cases on Wednesday, down from the average of about 5,700 cases over a four-day weekend it had reported on Tuesday. That brings the total of cases in the county to 358,496.

Deaths were up 64 from the previous day and now total 5,439 for the county since the pandemic began last year.

The county’s numbers have been rising steadily since October, and in the past two weeks have eclipsed the number of cases reported daily during the initial summer wave. Last week has seen one of the biggest jumps in case counts, with three days reporting more than 6,000 cases in the county. Prior to that, the county had never seen a day with more than 5,000 cases.
The seven-day average for new cases stood at 4,625 as of Dec. 31. That is up about 500 cases per day on average just from the previous week.

The seven-day rolling average for deaths also has seen a dramatic increase, hitting 49 deaths per day as of Dec. 20. Reports of deaths from COVID-19 tend to lag behind reports of new cases by two to three weeks.

Hospitalizations continue to rise as well, averaging 238 people a day as of Dec. 22 for a seven-day average. That number has been on the rise since late September, but in the past six weeks has seen a large increase.

Hospitalizations are a key challenge regarding the virus in the Valley and state as increases in cases are straining the ability of the region’s health care infrastructure to deal with greater numbers.