Arizona health officials reported Monday no new COVID-19 deaths and 638 more confirmed cases, one of the lowest figures in months.
The state Department of Health Services released the latest numbers, bringing the totals since the pandemic started to 833,381 cases and 16,553 deaths.
It’s not clear if the low case count is because sometimes hospitals lag on reporting data on weekends.
Still, even the number of COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds continues to drop. As of Sunday, 716 people were hospitalized due to the virus. Of those, 210 were in ICU beds. The last time those figures were that low was October.
Data from Johns Hopkins University indicated that seven-day rolling averages of daily new cases and daily deaths declined over the past two weeks.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher than reported because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
Meanwhile, many Arizona schools reopened for full-time in-person instruction Monday as mandated by Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive order. Earlier this month, the Republican governor announced schools had to return to in-person learning by March 15 or after their spring break. He cited teachers getting vaccinated as the main factor.
Ducey has said he believes Arizona can meet President Joe Biden’s declaration that everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by May.
To bring attention to the increasing vaccination effort, Dr. Cara Christ, director of the state Department of Health Services, is expected to administer the 500,000th dose at State Farm Stadium in Glendale on Monday. The around-the-clock, state-run vaccination site has been praised as a model.
In other developments:
—The University of Arizona is anticipating allowing classes of up to 100 students to resume meeting in-person. University President Robert Robbins said Monday during a virtual briefing that the change will take place the week of March 29. The school currently only allows a class size of up to 50 students to meet. Outdoor events will still be held to a cap of 50.
Robbins cited the COVID-19 test positivity rate of 0.19% within the university population as a factor in the decision. Last week, there were 17 positives out of 8,945 COVID-19 tests.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
