Arizona: More than 2,000 COVID-19 cases for 5th day in a row

Demand for COVID-19 tests on the rise amid delta variant-fueled surge

Arizona’s coronavirus dashboard reported 2,653 additional cases on Saturday. Meanwhile, workers with the Vincere Cancer Center say lines for their mobile COVID-19 testing van have been growing.

PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona health officials reported more than 2,000 additional COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day Sunday as virus-related hospitalizations continued to rise.

The state’s coronavirus dashboard reported 2,639 additional cases and 12 deaths, increasing the pandemic totals to 946,054 cases and 18,388 known deaths.

Health officials had reported 2,653 cases Saturday with 34 deaths.

The Arizona dashboard showed 1,350 COVID-19 patients occupying inpatient beds as of Sunday, down by 8 from Saturday, while the number of ICU beds used by COVID-19 patients fell by 15 to 346.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases nearly doubled over the past two weeks from 1,145.1 on July 22 to 2,227.6 on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The rolling average of daily deaths more than doubled during the same period, rising from 6.3 to 16.9.

MORE: Coronavirus in Arizona: Latest case numbers

While the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all increased in the past month, levels remain far below those of the surges last summer and winter.

The Arizona dashboard shows 53.3% of the state’s population have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 3.3 million Arizonans are fully vaccinated (47% of the population).

Arizona trails the nationwide rates of 58.4% with at least one dose and 50% fully vaccinated.

MAP: Arizona Coronavirus cases by zip code