Neighborhood paramedic Karin Casciano assesses a patient, 83, during a home wellness checkup on December 23, 2020 in White Plains, New York. The patient, an ex-US Marine, said the Christmas stockings were for his grown children, although he won’t be seeing them this Christmas due to the pandemic. (Photo by John Moore / Getty Images)
This is a regularly updated story with the latest information about the coronavirus and its impact in Arizona and beyond for December 25, 2020.
PHOENIX – Health officials in Arizona reported 6,616 new cases of coronavirus and 115 additional deaths on Christmas Day, while a record number of COVID-19 patients spend the vacation in the hospital.
The state’s documented totals have risen to 486,935 COVID-19 infections and 8,409 fatalities, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services dashboard.
Multiple COVID-19 statistics in Arizona were at or near pandemic highs.
The number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 hospital patients in Arizona rose to a record high of 4,226 on Thursday, the 12th daily record in the past 14 days.
The number of COVID-19 patients in state IC beds rose to 976, a record for the second time in the past three days.
Statewide, suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients occupied 50% of all hospital beds, earning the previous day’s record, and 55% of all IC beds.
In total, 91% of the hospital beds were filled and the intensive care beds were a record 93% full of pandemics. The state had 131 unused IC beds on Thursday, one less than the previous day.
Arizona’s weekly percent positivity for COVID-19 diagnostic tests, an indicator of how much the virus is spreading in the community, was 23% through 51,929 tests for this week. If it stays that way, the record of 21% will be broken from the week of June 28.
Official positivity rates are based on when the samples are taken, not when they are reported, so the rate for the past few weeks may fluctuate as labs are overtaken by testing and results are documented by the state.
The seven-day moving average for the health department’s newly reported cases for Thursday was 6,469, according to tracking by The Associated Press, the highest it has been this week.
The seven-day mean of newly reported COVID-19 deaths on Thursday was 88.14, down for the second consecutive day, but still the fifth highest on record.
The daily update of current case, death and test data after the state receives and confirms statistics, which can delay several days or more. They do not reflect actual activity for the last 24 hours.
The hospitalization data posted each morning is reported electronically the night before by 100 hospitals across the state as required under executive order.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, does not affect some people and is severely disabling or fatal to others. Infected people without symptoms – including but not limited to a cough, fever, and difficulty breathing – can spread the virus.
Information on testing sites can be found on the Arizona Department of Health Services website.
Below are Friday’s latest developments regarding the coronavirus pandemic from across the state, country and world:
- After throwing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID bill for emergency relief and government funding, President Donald Trump spent his Christmas Eve playing golf in Florida.
- According to research from Johns Hopkins University, there were approximately 79.25 million COVID-19 cases and 1.74 million deaths on Friday morning worldwide. The figures for the US were about 18.66 million cases and 329,000 deaths.