Photo By Jacqueline Marshall/Wyoming National Guard: Health experts advise the public to become vaccinated to avoid serious sickness from COVID-19.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – On Monday, the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services announced an additional 114 confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past four days and an additional death attributed to the virus.
According to the health department, 100 new confirmed cases are from the Safford zip code, with more than 20 from the Thatcher zip code and just less than 20 from the Pima/Bylas zip code. The chart includes 28 cases that were previously not given a zip code on Sept. 9.
The new death puts Graham County’s total at 97 for the course of the pandemic. Graham County has seen a total of 6,647 cases, with 5,769 recoveries, 781 currently active cases, and 97 deaths.
Graham County has a rate of 17,275 cases per 100,000 residents, making it the third worst county in Arizona, behind Yuma County (17,411 per 100,000) and Apache County (17,815 cases per 100,000) The state average is 14,617 cases per 100,000 residents.
While Greenlee County has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases, it also has the lowest rate of cases with 7,961 per 100,000 residents.
Greenlee has had a surge the past month-and-a-half as well while dealing with the Delta variant, and the Greenlee County Health Department listed five new confirmed cases on Sunday to push its currently active total to 186.
For the course of the pandemic, Greenlee County has reported 827 total cases, with 628 recoveries, 186 currently active cases, and 13 deaths.
Health experts advise the best way to avoid sickness or death and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to become vaccinated against it, just as people are vaccinated against other diseases. While breakthrough cases may occur in vaccinated people, the virus is far more likely to be caught by someone who is not vaccinated. Additionally, vaccinated people are much more likely to be asymptomatic or have mild symptoms if a breakthrough case occurs. Nearly all of the patients hospitalized locally for COVID have been unvaccinated.
The Graham County Department of Health and Human Services offers free vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Children 12 and up can receive the Pfizer vaccine, and adults can have any of the three. The health department provides the vaccine Mondays-Wednesdays from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m., Thursdays from 2 – 5 p.m., and the Pfizer vaccine on Thursdays and Fridays from 5 – 7:30 p.m. Click here to register to receive a vaccine.
