Medical staff are working to extract a muscle sample from a patient for a muscle biopsy examination in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center on December 22, 2020 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Go Nakamura / Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and not just for December 23, 2020.
PHOENIX – Arizona health officials reported 6,058 new coronavirus cases and 54 additional deaths on Wednesday, while state hospitals are treating a record number of COVID-19 patients.
The state’s documented total rose to 473,273 COVID-19 infections and 8,179 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The daily reports present data on the case, death and testing after the state receives statistics and confirms them, which can remain for a few days or more. It is not the actual activity of the last 24 hours.
More COVID-19 values in Arizona remain at or near pandemic highs.
The number of patients admitted to the confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospital in Arizona rose on Tuesday to a historic level of 4,163 on Tuesday, an increase of 144 from the previous day. It was the 10th daily record of coronavirus inpatients in the last 12 days.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in ICU state beds was up to 972, surpassing the record of 970 on July 13.
At the national level, patients suspected or confirmed by COVID-19 took over 49% of all inpatient beds, a record level and 55% of all ICU beds.
Overall, hospital beds were 92% full, and intensive care beds were 93% pandemic. The state fell to 119 unused UCI beds, the lowest number of pandemics.
The seven-day average of new deaths reported by COVID-19 in the health department rose to 100.43 on Tuesday, according to a follow-up by The Associated Press, surpassing the record of July 30.
The seven-day average for newly reported cases was 6,119 for Tuesday, up slightly from the previous day, but the second lowest since December 11.
Arizona’s weekly positive test for COVID-19, an indicator of how widespread the virus is in the community, is on track to decline after falling in recent weeks.
For 12,304 tests recorded for this week, the positivity rate was 21%, which would correspond to the record for the week starting June 28.
The rate has been 18% in the last three weeks.
Official positivity rates are based on the time of sampling, not the time they are reported, so the percentage in recent weeks may fluctuate as laboratories are tested and the results are documented by the state.
Hospitalization data posted each morning is reported electronically the previous evening by 100 hospitals across the state, as required by the executive order.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, has no impact on some and is severely debilitating or fatal to others. Asymptomatic infected people – which include, but are not limited to, cough, fever, and difficulty breathing – are able to spread the virus.
Information on test locations can be found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website.
Below are the latest developments on Wednesday about the coronavirus pandemic across the country, country and world:
- The Navajo nation reported 157 new cases of coronavirus and there were no recent deaths, bringing the documented totals to 21,513 infections and 755 deaths.
- With COVID-19 growing in Arizona, several facilities in Arizona’s largest hospital system, Banner Health, have reduced elective surgery and are operating at over 100% capacity.
- A group of Arizona State University students won $ 500,000 in a face mask design contest aimed at overcoming the usual claims of protective wear.
- President Donald Trump has threatened to torpedo the massive rescue and end-of-year package of Congress, raising a heavy compromise amid a raging pandemic and deep economic uncertainty, demanding changes that have opposed Republican counterparts.
- The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits fell by 89,000 last week to 803,000, still evidence that the job market remains under stress nine months after the coronavirus outbreak, which sent the US economy into recession and caused millions of layoffs. .
- The director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, Dr. Cara Christ, said she was “hopeful” that state hospitals would have enough manpower to cope with the continued growth of COVID-19 patients.
- Pfizer and BioNTech will supply the US with another 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine under a second agreement.
- Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, said KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Chad and Gaydos Show that a new variant of coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom may already be in the United States, but this is not a concern.
- Globally, there have been approximately 78.17 million COVID-19 cases and 1.72 million deaths since Wednesday morning, according to research from Johns Hopkins University. The figures for the US were about 18.24 million cases and 323,000 deaths.