Arizona reports nearly 3,900 COVID cases as surge continues

PHOENIX (AP) — A day after Arizona surpassed the 1 million milestone in confirmed coronavirus cases, the state on Saturday reported nearly, 3,900 additional cases, the most since last February during last winter's surge.

The 3,893 additional cases and 55 deaths reported Saturday increased Arizona's pandemic totals to 1,005,864 cases and 18,779 deaths, according to the state's coronavirus dashboard.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases rose over the past two weeks from 2,604 on Aug. 12 to 3,184 on Thursday. and the rolling average of daily deaths rose over from 13.3 deaths to 23.3 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

After climbing steadily since early July, the state's number of virus-related hospitalizations in recent days has ranged between 1,900 and 2,000, with 1,982 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds as of Friday.

That's far below the pandemic peak of 5,082 on Jan. 11 during the winter surge but about three times as many patients occupied hospital beds during the three-month period between that surge and the current one.