The Arizona Department of Health Services reported more than 6,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, more than the total on this day last year.
The 6,043 new cases were added to the state health department’s COVD-19 dashboard, compared to about 5,700 new cases on Dec. 4, 2020.
Dr. Shad Marvasti of the University of Arizona says the spread comes from Arizonans not using available resources to protect themselves from COVID-19.
“The key issue here is that these are numbers that are higher than they were a year ago, when we didn’t have any vaccines available, and I think that’s really a point of concern, because we’re not using all the tools that we have,” said Marvasti.
About 95% of Arizona’s inpatient hospital beds are occupied as of Thursday.
Just under 55% of Arizonans are fully vaccinated, placing the state 29th in population fully vaccinated, and nearly 5 percentage points behind the national average.
