By Jon Johnson
GREENLEE COUNTY – The area least hit in the sheer number of cases of COVID-19 last year, is now seeing more cases faster than it ever has and now has its 11th death.
On Wednesday, the Greenlee County Health Department reported 10 new positive tests for COVID-19 for the day. That gave Greenlee County 67 currently active cases. On Thursday, the health department corroborated that a new COVID-19 death had occurred for a Greenlee County resident, bringing the total for the pandemic to 11. The department had been waiting on a coroner’s report prior to releasing a statement.
The recent death was a resident in their 80s from the Clifton area. The county has had five COVID deaths from the Clifton area, four from the Duncan area, and two from the Morenci area.
Even with the recent substantial increase in cases, Greenlee County still has the lowest number of overall cases at 675 for the entire pandemic, with 67 active cases, 598 recoveries, and 11 deaths, according to the Greenlee County Health Department.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Greenlee County has a fully vaccinated total population rate of 32.1 percent, with the rate of those 12 and older at 39.3 percent, those 18 and older at 43.5 percent, and those 65 years old and older at 65.3 percent with 72.2 percent having at least one dose.
Graham County
New positive tests continue to surge in Graham County as well, but, at least on Wednesday, the number of new cases is being outpaced by new vaccine doses by more than a three-to-one margin.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Graham County saw an uptick of 21 new cases from Wednesday while also administering 74 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The new positive tests put Graham County’s active case number to 223. Recently, the Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center advised that nearly half of all its patients taking up beds were for COVID-19. The new cases include nine from the Safford zip code, six from the Pima/Bylas zip code, five unknown, and one from the Thatcher zip code.
Graham County has seen a total of 5,885 cases of COVID-19 for the course of the pandemic, with 5,573 recoveries, 223 active cases, and 89 deaths.
According to the CDC, Graham County has a fully vaccinated rate of 46.1 percent of the total population, with the rate of those 12 and older at 56.1 percent, 18 and older at 61 percent, and those in the most endangered group of 65 and older at 90.1 percent fully vaccinated and 97.6 percent with at least one dose.
Vaccines for those ages 12 and older are available free of charge from the county health departments and local pharmacies. A third dose (booster shot) has now been authorized for use by certain immunocompromised people, according to Graham County Health Department Director Brian Douglas.
