United States President Donald Trump addresses Air Force One before leaving Andrews Joint Base in Maryland on June 23, 2020, as he travels to Arizona to see the border wall and speak at a Republican student event.
Saul Loeb | AFP | fake pictures
The Arizona Department of Health reported nearly 3,600 additional cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, another record for additional daily cases, before President Donald Trump’s scheduled appearances later in the day.
Arizona is averaging about 2,500 new cases daily as of Monday, representing a 94% increase from a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.
The coronavirus infected 3,593 people and killed 42 other people in Arizona since Monday, bringing the state’s death toll to 1,384, according to the state health department.
While the increase in the number of daily cases could reflect a delay in data reporting or increased testing in certain locations across the state, Arizona’s positivity rate increased from 5% in early May to almost 20% in June, according to the state health department. Your current average positivity rate is over 10%.
The positivity rate indicates the percentage of tests that test positive in a specific region. Epidemiologists say this number may indicate how widely the virus is spreading in a community.
Another factor that is carefully observed are the hospitalizations, which can indicate the severity of cases in an area. These data may delay the number of new cases.
Arizona hospitals have reported more patients in their hospital beds and intensive care units since mid-May when the state began to reopen. About 84% of the state’s intensive care unit beds were in use as of Monday, compared to the 74% reported in use on Memorial Day.
The increase in cases and hospitalizations comes as Trump travels to the state border and to Phoenix, where he is scheduled to attend a campaign rally at a local church. Infectious disease experts have warned against large indoor gatherings, such as the recent Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as cases increase in the west and south.
“We are really seeing the fastest growth rate among our youth in the community, and here it is, a concentration specifically focused on that demographic,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, told CNN. “Public health professionals in Phoenix are trying to tell young people to take this seriously.”
White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday during a hearing before the House Committee on Commerce and Energy that parts of the United States are beginning to see a “disturbing increase” in coronavirus infections .
While New York State is seeing a decrease in Covid-19 cases, other states are seeing an increase in cases that “reflect an increase in community spread,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy. and Infectious Diseases.
“That is something that really concerns me quite a bit,” he said.
The Trump administration has maintained that the Covid-19 response remains a priority.
“That is why the working group meets regularly, the president receives that information. The vice president has led the working group and the president finally makes the decisions and is constantly updated with the latest numbers,” said the press secretary. Kayleigh McEnany. she said during a briefing.
– CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr., William Feuer and Jasmine Kim contributed to this report.
