Raymundo Frasquillo Photo/Gila Herald: A young girl secures her mask with loops over her ears. Free fabric masks for girls, boys, men, and women were being handed out at the entrance to Basha’s grocery store in Morenci. As of Sunday, Graham County reportedly has had seven cases of COVID-19, while Greenlee County has had two, the lowest in the state.
Greenlee County hasn’t had a new positive test since its original outbreak
GRAHAM AND GREENLEE COUNTIES – After going a month without a positive test, Graham County has had a small outbreak after a person visiting from New Mexico passed the virus onto two people who work together.
From there, the virus was passed onto two family members and third person.
The fifth case (the seventh total for Graham County since the start of the pandemic) was initially reported by the state as Graham County’s seventh, then it was taken off the state’s database Saturday and then reinstated on Sunday.
The Graham County Department of Health Services is investigating the reasons for why the case was included, then taken down, and then included again and advised further information would be forthcoming.
“We can confirm that there is a seventh case and details will be released later today,” said Graham County Health Department Director Brian Douglas.
So far, none of the cases in Graham County have required hospitalization.
Greenlee County
Greenlee County hasn’t had a positive test since its original outbreak, which eventually involved two family members. In that outbreak, a patient caught the virus and was then deemed fully recovered and not contagious just as a family member’s test came back as positive. That family member has since fully recovered as well.
As of Sunday morning, the ADHS is reporting a total of 6,526 positive tests in Arizona since the start of the pandemic, with 275 deaths relating to COVID-19.
Maricopa County – the state’s most populous county – leads with 3,359 cases, followed by Pima County with 1,136, Navajo County – 625, Coconino County – 420, Pinal County – 342, Apache County – 336, Mohave County – 88, Yavapai County – 76, Yuma County – 51, Cochise County – 36, Santa Cruz County – 30, Gila County – 11, La Paz County – 7, Graham County – 7, and Greenlee County – 2.
Even with the new cases, Graham County remains the county with the lowest amount of positive tests on a per capita basis. According to the ADHS, Graham County (which as of the last census in 2010 had a little more than 40,000 residents) has a per capita ratio of 18.2 positive tests per 100,000 residents. Greenlee is the second-lowest in the state, with a 19.3 positive test ratio per 100,000 residents while it has actually only had two positive tests.
While Maricopa County has the most actual tests, it is only the fifth-highest in the state on a per capita basis, with a 76.9 positive test ratio per 100,000 residents. Conversely, Navajo County is the highest with a ratio of 554 per 100,000, followed by Apache County with a ratio of 467.9 per 100,000, and Coconino County with a ratio of 285.2 per 100,000.
According to the ADHS, Graham County has completed 197 tests with a 3 percent positive test rate; Greenlee has completed 86 tests with a 2.3 percent positive rate. With additional test results still pending, Graham County’s numbers could increase from the latest outbreak as tests come back.
