The Four Corners states are now seeing some of the highest COVID-19 caseloads in the country.
The U.S. has recently been reporting about 170 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a lot, but Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado are each reporting rates at least twice as high. New Mexico is currently second-highest among states by rate of new COVID cases. Colorado is seventh-highest. Utah and Arizona rank 13th and 14th.
In the middle of the Four Corners region, the Navajo Nation has been reporting about 403 cases per 100,000 people.
“We’ve been in this pandemic for quite some time now and our numbers are not getting better, they’re not going down," Dr. Jill Jim, executive director of the Navajo Department of Health, said in a Tuesday town hall video.
Jim warns that Navajo Nation hospital facilities are increasingly strained. Across Arizona, COVID-19 inpatient bed use has increased 33% in the past month.
