By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – On Tuesday, the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services announced two new deaths in Graham County attributed to the novel coronavirus COVID-19. One death was that of a person in the 55-64 age group and the second was in the 65 and older age group.
Graham County has received the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 and has begun vaccinating people in the 1A group, including healthcare workers, and those who live and work at long-term care facilities. The next group to be eligible to receive the vaccination are first responders, essential employees, and those who are 75 years old or older.
According to the Graham County Department of Health and Human Services, the county saw an increase of seven new positive tests on Tuesday to increase the total for the pandemic to 3,144. Out of those, 2,119 are listed as being recovered, 975 are listed as currently active, and there have been 50 deaths attributed to COVID-19, most being those over the age of 65.
Out of the new cases reported Tuesday, five came from Safford, and one each from Thatcher and Pima.
To date, the ages of those who have been infected in Graham County include 580 under the age of 20, 1,395 between the ages of 20-44, 414 between the ages of 45-54, 346 between the ages of 55-64, 402 who are 65 or older, and seven unknown.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services’ metrics, both Graham County and the entire state of Arizona is in the “substantial transmission” spread for the virus on both the business and school dashboards. Despite that, Governor Doug Ducey has replied that tactics have changed and believes most of the spread has come from other areas than from businesses, so he has declined to shutter businesses due to the metrics. Additionally, schools are recommended to go to distance-only learning, but that is at their own discretion.
Greenlee County
As of Monday, the Greenlee County Health Department has administered 3,581 tests, with 3,189 negative results, and 392 positives.
The county currently lists 161 active cases, with 228 recovered cases, and three deaths.
Statewide
On Tuesday, the ADHS listed 2,799 new cases to bring its total for the pandemic to 507,222 in Arizona. The department also listed 171 new deaths on Tuesday, to bring the total for Arizona to 8,640 dead attributed to COVID-19.
The breakdown of total cases by county includes Maricopa with 311,242, Pima – 67,679, Yuma – 27,068, Pinal – 26,857, Mohave – 11,862, Navajo – 11,119, Yavapai – 10,912, Coconino – 10,887, Apache – 7,274, Cochise – 7,259, Santa Cruz – 5,824, Gila – 4,361, Graham – 3,144, La Paz – 1,347, and Greenlee – 387 (county lists it at 392).
