Greenlee County hasn’t had a positive test for two weeks
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – After peaking in mid-July, the rate of new COVID-19 positive tests has decreased significantly in Graham County and throughout the state.
According to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services, Graham County had 95 positive tests the week of July 12 and 96 the week of July 19. The positive tests then tapered off to just 66 the week of July 26 – which is the last week data from the state is available until Thursday. However, the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services (GCDHHS) reported Graham County as having 59 positive tests for the week of Aug. 2 and 60 for the week of Aug. 9.
The health department reported seven new positive tests on Tuesday, bringing the current week’s total to 16. To date, the county has administered tests to 3,345 people with a total of 621 positives. The county lists 340 currently active cases, with 260 recovered cases, and 21 deaths, for a current recovered rate of about 40 percent. According to GCDHHS criteria, a positive test is not considered a recovered patient until they have 30 days symptom-free. Graham County has about 39,000 residents.
The current death-rate percentage of known positive tests is about 3.4 percent in Graham County. However, a number of people who get infected show little to no symptoms and do not end up getting tested, so the death rate is likely lower than the one that can be calculated. Additionally, those who have died have overwhelmingly been elderly patients with underlying health conditions.
According to the state’s database, Graham County’s positive test cases include 102 who are under 20 years of age, 273 between 20-44, 67 between 45-54, 64 between 55-64, and 114 who are 65 years old or older.
Greenlee County
The Greenlee County Health Department hasn’t had a new positive test result since Thursday, Aug. 6. As of Tuesday, the department has administered tests to 968 people, with 845 being negative, 58 positives, and 65 results pending. The county lists 14 active cases, 42 recovered cases (72 percent current recovered rate), and two deaths. Greenlee County has about 10,000 residents.
Greenlee County only has a positive test rate of 4.8 percent but its rate of cases is 549 per 100,000 population (according to ADHS numbers). However, since it hasn’t had a case in two weeks, it should meet all three benchmarks for both in-person school and business reopening once the state catches up with the data.
The breakdown of the Greenlee cases include three under the age of 20, 34 between 20-44, nine between 45-54, seven between 55-64, and five who are 65 years old or older.
San Carlos Apache Tribe
The San Carlos Apache Tribe stretches into both Graham and Gila counties and its cases add to the respective counties’ cases based on the geography of where the patients reside. On Wednesday, the San Carlos Apache Tribe Department of Health & Human Services reported 11 new positive tests for the reservation.
To date, the Tribe has administered tests to 5,481 people with 4,710 negative, 670 positives, and 101 results pending.
The Tribe lists 103 currently active cases, with 561 recovered cases (84 percent current recovered rate), and six deaths.
The area breakdown on the reservation includes Gilson Wash – 112 positive, 91 recovered, 19 active, two deaths; Peridot – 227 positive, 198 recovered, 25 active, four deaths; 7-Mile – 108 positive, 96 recovered, 12 active; Bylas – 175 positive, 132 recovered, 43 active; other areas – 48 positive, 44 recovered, four active.
Statewide
For the state, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported 637 new cases Wednesday to bring the total to 195,557 for the state. It added 105 new deaths Thursday to bring the total fatalities due to COVID-19 to 4,634 in Arizona. The state has about 7.3 million residents.
The deaths by age group for the entire state include 3.320 who were 65 years old or older, 715 who were between 55-64, 318 who were between 45-54, 269 who were between 20-44, and 12 who were less than 20 years old. The state currently lists that 80 percent of the intensive care unit (ICU) beds across the state are in use, with 24 percent being used by people with COVID-19.
Reported positive cases in the various counties include Maricopa County with 130,384 Pima County – 20,047, Yuma County – 11,927, Pinal County – 8,989, Navajo County – 5,470, Mohave County – 3,411, Apache County – 3,269, Coconino County – 3,200, Santa Cruz County – 2,709, Yavapai County – 2,191, Cochise County – 1,769, Gila County – 1,021, Graham County – 621, La Paz County – 492, Greenlee County – 57 (county lists it at 58).
