Number of new COVID-19 cases starts to flatten in Arizona and Pima County | Local news
The COVID-19 intensive care unit at Tucson Medical Center. A local health expert says he’s cautiously optimistic that virus cases are decreasing in Pima County.
Arizona recently saw novel coronavirus cases plateau from one week to the next.
It marks the first time cases have not increased from week to week since around the time Gov. Doug Ducey let his stay-home order expire on May 16.
New confirmed cases in Arizona totaled 27,121 from June 28 to July 4, according to data published by the Arizona Department of Health Services on Friday. That was a mild decrease of 267 cases, or less than 1%, from the week of June 21-27.
New cases in Pima County totaled 2,289 from June 28 to July 4. That was a decrease of 13 cases, also less than 1%, compared with the previous week.
More recent totals for the week of July 5-11 are still very likely incomplete due to data-reporting lags, which make it difficult to interpret recent coronavirus trends.
As of Friday, however, new cases in Arizona totaled 15,650 from July 5 to July 11, according to data published by ADHS on Friday. That was a decrease of 11,471 cases, or 42%, from the week of June 28 to July 4. Pima County saw a similar decrease in new cases of about 44%.
Lags occur across the health-care system at places like hospitals and laboratories that report data to the state. Typically, it takes about four to seven days for ADHS to publish new cases, according to the department’s website.
In recent weeks, however, the reporting lags have grown longer and longer, said Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health.
About a week ago, for example, the total number of cases in Arizona from June 28 to July 4 looked like they had decreased by 17% from the week of June 21-27, but 4,654 cases were backfilled over the last week, as of Friday. These backfilled cases showed the subtle, week-to-week statewide decrease of less than 1%.
