Arizona will update COVID-19 data just once a week starting in March

For nearly two years, the Arizona Department of Health Services has provided  daily updates on COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and other data related to the pandemic. That will change in March.

The department says it plans to stop updating its COVID-19 dashboard on a daily basis. Instead, it will switch to a weekly report.

"Changing such a widely used resource isn’t something to be done lightly," Dr. Richard Carmona, special adviser to Gov. Ducey on public health preparedness wrote in a  blog post Friday. "The state and our hospitals are proud of what this data reporting effort has meant to all Arizonans during such a challenging time. We look forward to this partnership continuing to keep all of us informed while acknowledging that the COVID-19 pandemic is moving toward a new phase for which weekly reporting can provide the information we all need to make informed decisions."

Carmona wrote that less frequent reporting will be easier on the hospitals who provide the data. And he said since new COVID-19 cases and other metrics are in decline, it’s a good time to change COVID-19 reporting to match the way the department reports other diseases.

The last daily report will be released Feb. 26. Weekly updates are set to begin March 2.