By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – Graham County was looking to have less COVID-19 positive tests this week until the last three days blew the curve.
After only registering only 19 positive tests for Sunday through Wednesday, the county added 27 on Thursday, 13 on Friday, and five on Saturday to push its weekly total to 64, which is slightly more than the 60 or 59 it has been getting for the last few weeks. So, instead of lowering and businesses being able to open with the benchmarks from the state being met, the county is more or less holding steady. However, that information is a bit misleading as the increased positive tests from the area of the San Carlos Apache Reservation that is in Graham County has accounted for about half of the positive test results in the last couple of weeks.
As of Saturday, Graham County has tested a total of 3,566 people with 669 positives. There are currently 347 active cases and 300 recovered cases. According to health department criteria, a case must have 30 days symptom-free before being declared recovered. Graham County has about 39,000 residents.
The county has also seen 22 deaths attributed to COVID-19, with all but one being victims over the age of 65. The death rate in Graham County for those who have known to contract the virus is about 3.3 percent. However, the total number of people who have contracted the virus isn’t likely known as a number who do either are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms which they do not go to the hospital or be tested.
According to the state’s database, Graham County’s positive test cases include 112 who are under 20 years of age, 298 between 20-44, 70 between 45-54, 69 between 55-64, and 119 who are 65 years old or older.
It also lists Graham County currently at a 9.8 percent positivity test rate with 1,738 cases per 100,000.
Greenlee County
Greenlee County hasn’t had a new positive test in more than two weeks and lists only seven active cases.
The Greenlee County Health Department has administered tests to 1,001 people as of Saturday, with 922 being negative, 58 positives, and 21 results pending. The county lists only seven active cases, 49 recovered cases, and two deaths. Greenlee County has about 10,000 residents.
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 four who are 65 years old or older.
Greenlee County has a total test percent positive rate of 4.7 percent with 549 cases per 100,000 population.
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 Saturday, the San Carlos Apache Tribe Department of Health & Human Services reported 26 new positive tests for the reservation.
To date, the Tribe has administered tests to 5,698 people with 4,908 negative, 716 positives, and 74 results pending.
The Tribe lists 107 currently active cases, with 603 recovered cases, and six deaths.
The area breakdown on the reservation includes Gilson Wash – 115 positive, 98 recovered, 15 active, two deaths; Peridot – 241 positive, 212 recovered, 25 active, four deaths; 7-Mile – 110 positive, 96 recovered, 14 active; Bylas – 196 positive, 153 recovered, 43 active; other areas – 54 positive, 44 recovered, 10 active.
Statewide
For the state, the Arizona Department of Health Services reported just 207 new cases Saturday to bring the total to 198,103 for the state. It added only 15 new deaths Saturday to bring the total fatalities due to COVID-19 to 4,771 in Arizona. Recent hospitalization numbers have been the lowest the state has seen since the start of the pandemic in March. The state has about 7.3 million residents.
Reported positive cases in the various counties include Maricopa County with 131,787, Pima County – 20,475, Yuma County – 12,048, Pinal County – 9,187, Navajo County – 5,498, Mohave County – 3,489, Apache County – 3,302, Coconino County – 3,244, Santa Cruz County – 2,742, Yavapai County – 2,242, Cochise County – 1,795, Gila County – 1,073, Graham County – 669, La Paz County – 494, Greenlee County – 57 (county reports 58).
