Reported COVID-19 cases in Arizona were slightly lower last week, as was the percentage of tests returning positive for the virus, according to the state’s weekly update.Health officials on Wednesday added 13,501 new COVID-19 cases and 59 new known deaths over the weeklong period ending Aug. 6. June and July saw relatively similar weekly case additions, and Wednesday’s was the lowest reported since May.Case counts are still far below the winter, state data shows. Case numbers in recent months likely are not showing the full picture of infections as many more people have used at-home test kits and may not report positive results to their doctors or county health departments. Arizona, like other states, is seeing ongoing elevated cases largely driven by two contagious subvariants of the virus, BA.4 and BA.5, with BA.5 the more dominant of the two. It’s also likely contributing to reinfections given its contagiousness and ability to evade antibodies. Residents in five of Arizona’s 15 counties should be wearing face masks indoors in public because of COVID-19 levels, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Aug. 4. Those counties were Mohave, Navajo, Apache, Yuma and La Paz. The CDC’s “community level” guidance is updated weekly and ranks counties as low, medium and high, or green, yellow and orange. The six Arizona counties designated as “medium” were Coconino, Gila, Graham, Cochise, Santa Cruz and Pima. Maricopa, Yavapai, Pinal and Greenlee were “low” as of Aug. 4.The metrics are based on a county’s COVID-19 hospital bed use, COVID-19 hospital admissions and case rates for the virus over the past week.Reported cases since the pandemic began are over 2.2 million. Known deaths in Arizona are at about 30,900. Wednesday marked the 24th of the …
Arizona weekly COVID-19 update adds 13,501 cases, 59 deaths – The Arizona Republic
