By Jon Johnson
GRAHAM COUNTY – The number of COVID-19 cases in Graham County has skyrocketed with the start of the new year but, so far, there have been no new deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Graham County for the new year to date.
After Graham County had a record number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 in one month in December (33), it has gone nearly the first two weeks of January without a single death.
As the county mitigates through the “Delta” variant into the more transmissible but less deadly “Omicron” variant, cases are increasing dramatically but without as many severe consequences.
According to the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services, Graham County has seen an increase of 173 new COVID-19 cases in the last three days, increasing the county’s total for the pandemic to 9,449 and current active caseload to 713. The county has had 8,577 recoveries since the start of the pandemic and 159 deaths.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, Graham County has a COVID-19 rate of 24,558 cases per 100,000 population. That is good for the second-worst rate out of any of Arizona’s 15 counties, just behind Navajo County, which has a rate of 26,261 per 100,000 population. Apache County is the third-worst with a rate of 24,267 per 100,000 population.
The ADHS put out data regarding rates of COVID-19 by vaccination status. Click here to go through the data, which states that in November unvaccinated people had nearly a 5 times greater chance of contracting COVID-19 and 31 times greater risk of dying from it.
The Graham County Department of Health and Human Services offers free vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson and has booster shots for those 18 and over. Additionally, children 5 and up can receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and adults can have any of the three. The health department provides the vaccine Mondays from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m., Thursdays from 2 – 5 p.m., and the Pfizer vaccine for those 5 and older on Thursdays from 5 – 7:30 p.m. and Fridays from 2 – 5 p.m. Click here to register to receive a vaccine. Vaccines are also available at local pharmacies such as Palo Verde Pharmacy in Pima, and, in Greenlee County, at Gila Health Resources.
Greenlee County
According to the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services, Greenlee County had 43 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on Thursday and 38 on Wednesday to give the county 1,782 for the course of the pandemic.
As of Thursday, Greenlee County had roughly 228 active cases while it registered 1,519 recoveries and 30 deaths for the course of the pandemic.
Greenlee County still has the lowest rate of cases by county in the state with 15,874 per 100,000 population. Greenlee is followed by Yavapai County with 16,732 cases per 100,000 population and Cochise County with 16,879 cases per 100,000 population. The state’s average is 21,462 cases per 100,000 population.
