Arizona reports 2,970 more COVID-19 cases, most in 6 months

Arizona's healthcare system strained by increasing COVID-19 cases, staffing shortages

Hospital and ICU beds have quickly filled up with more COVID-19 patients over the last few weeks in Arizona as cases have steadily risen, health experts say. Doctors are warning that the state is getting close to reaching the ICU capacity levels that it saw during the surge in the summer of 2020.

PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona on Aug. 12 reported 2,970 additional COVID-19 cases, the most reported in a single day in the past six months, as the number of virus patients occupying hospital beds continued to climb.

Along with reporting over 2,000 additional cases for the ninth day so far this month, the state’s coronavirus dashboard also reported six more virus deaths as the pandemic totals increased to 955,767 cases and 18,412 deaths.

The last time Arizona reported more cases on a single day was 4,381 on Feb. 9.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, the rolling average of daily new cases rose over the past two weeks from 1,424 new cases on July 27 to 2,450 new cases on Tuesday.

There were 1,527 virus patients occupying hospital beds as of Wednesday, a level last seen in February as the winter surge wound down, the state’s dashboard reported.

The dashboard also reported the administration of 28,947 additional vaccine doses.

While the daily reports of additional cases and hospitalizations rose steadily in July and so far in August, they remain below numbers seen during the surges last summer and last winter. Deaths are far fewer than the previous surges.