AZ Sees Sharp Increase In COVID Cases Reported In The Past Week

ARIZONA — More than 14,000 new case of COVID-19 were reported to the Arizona Department of Health Services on Monday alone, according to department data.

Some of those cases piled up and went unreported until Monday because of the New Year's holiday. However, the day-by-day case count still saw significant increases following the Christmas holiday weekend, even when a build up of unreported cases was taken into account.

No new deaths were reported Monday, and reports of daily COVID-19 deaths in the state have decreased considerably since the start of December. On Dec. 7, for example, 75 deaths were reported, while no more than seven daily deaths had been attributed to the virus since Dec. 24, as of Monday.

New COVID-19 cases reported for data collected on the following days:

• Dec. 27: 7,711 cases
• Dec. 28: 8,609
• Dec. 29: 8,318
• Dec. 30: 7,565
• Dec. 31: 1,985
• Jan. 1: 142

The last time Arizona reported a comparable number of daily COVID-19 cases was around a year ago, in mid-January 2021, before vaccines were widely available.

Arizona's most recent one-day case-report spike was Nov. 29, with 5,607 cases.

The state's largest daily case count so far since the start of the pandemic was almost exactly a year ago on Jan. 4, 2021, when Arizona reported 12,438 cases in a single day.

Like in many other places across the country, rapid at-home tests are hard to come by in Arizona and like during spikes in the past, schools and workplaces are making changes in efforts to keep students and employees safe.

The city of Tempe announced Thursday that all of its locations that had been handing out free COVID-19 rapid home test kits were out of stock, and the city had no estimate of when supplies would be replenished. Distribution locations in Tempe ran out of the tests in just a few hours the first day they were distributed.

Kyrene School District in Tempe announced Saturday that it would require students to mask up as of Monday, the first day of classes for students following winter break. The district had previously planned to make masking optional after the break.

Kyrene Superintendent Laura Toenjes said in a letter to parents that the change in plans for masking requirements was both in response to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that allows students to cut down on quarantine time and the increase in COVID-19 cases within the community.