ARIZONA, USA — Arizona saw four days with record-breaking COVID-19 case numbers in the first week of December, according to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Tuesday saw the highest amount of cases ever reported on a single day at 10,322. The second, third, and fourth highest reported cases also happened the same week: Saturday at 6,799, Friday at 5,480, and Thursday at 5,480 respectively.
It's important to remember that the cases reported by ADHS on a day are not the number of cases that were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, but the number of cases that were reported to ADHS by counties. For instance, the over 10,000 cases reported on Tuesday was an outlier due to a delay in counties reporting their cases over Thanksgiving weekend.
However, even if these numbers didn't all happen in the past 24 hours, they're still the highest the state has ever seen. The last time the state saw this high of reported cases was back on June 29 at 5,453 cases.
Public health experts around the state have said that record-braking numbers may become the norm through December and January due to the spread of the virus.
"Cases are going up, and the pace for increase is going to quicken," University of Arizona Public Health Expert Joe Gerald said. "We should expect to see more days with 6,000 cases, and there will be days with 7,000 and 8,000, unless something is done to interrupt this pathway."
Gerald is part of the University of Arizona's COVID-19 modeling team which authors the weekly "COVID-19 Outbreak Outlook." In it, the team offers metric projections and suggestions for how to slow the spread of the virus.
"If not slowed within the next one to two weeks, new COVID-19 cases will overwhelm our capacity to provide hospital care by the end of December," the report states.
"A state-wide shelter-in-place order is warranted to slow transmission and to prevent overwhelming our hospital system. A state-wide mask mandate is also needed. Individuals and business who do not comply with restrictions should face sanctions."
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