Arizona reports 5,236 more COVID cases; hospitalizations up

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has reported over 5,000 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases as virus-related hospitalizations continued to rise. The 5,236 additional cases and 14 deaths reported on Friday by state officials raised Arizona’s pandemic totals to over 1,282,000 cases and nearly 22,400 deaths. As of Monday, 2,714 virus patients occupied inpatient rooms in hospitals statewide, the most since last February during that winter’s surge. Although current virus-related hospitalizations are only about half the peak seen last January, hospitals overall are just as full as during the last winter. That’s because more non-COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized. Only 5% of Arizona’s inpatient beds were unoccupied as of Thursday.