Arizona on Tuesday reported the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in the state in four months. The Arizona Department of Health Services added 563 positive cases to its daily dashboard. That number has not fallen below 700 since Nov. 9.
COVID-19 is still widespread in Arizona. At a vaccination event last week, state health department Director Dr. Cara Christ cautioned it would still be a few months before enough vaccines are available to bring the virus more under control.
"We need to urge everyone to keep it up for just a little bit longer. There's still a ways to go in our battle against COVID-19," Christ said. "We must continue doing all that we can to mitigate the spread, so those precautions still need to happen when you are around people that you do not live with."
But more than 10% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, and Arizona’s outbreak continues to show signs of improvement. There are now fewer Arizonans in hospital ICU beds or on ventilators than there have been since November. And as new daily caseloads continue to decline, the positivity rate among COVID-19 tests is also falling.
The state health department reports just 5% of tests turned up positive last week. At the beginning of this year, the positivity rate had soared to 25%.
Arizona Coronavirus Cases, Deaths
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