AZ Pandemic Numbers for the Week Ending July 24: Welcome to Surge 3.0
Here are the Arizona pandemic numbers for the week just ended:
As with last week, everything is heading in the wrong direction. Infection rates are up by 3-4 per 100K, percent positive tests is up. Delta now account for 2/3 of the sequences.
Here is a screenshot from the ASU dashboard of daily new cases (Xs) and a seven-day moving average of the same (yellow line).
It seems pretty clear that we are in Surge 3.0, with daily cases having almost tripled over the last three weeks.
There are two changes to the table. First, I've started expressing COVID-19 inpatient beds as a percentage of beds available rather than as a raw number. That makes it a little easier to put the changes in context (IMO). If you want the raw numbers, you can find them on the ASU dashboard (linked above).
It's encouraging that this number is only going up an average of around 1% per week, even though the infection rates are going up faster. Of course, there is a lag involved, so maybe hospitalizations haven't caught up yet.
A second change is that I've added a row to track Arizona's rank among the states in vaccinated percentage. Last week, I think we were more around the middle of the pack.
Last week there was another increase in fully vaccinated folks greater than the sub-percent values we were getting a month ago. Here's how it looks on the accelerator:
The "sawtooth" pattern continues, adding evidence that there is some irregular reporting going on here. Still, we're close to half the AZ population vaccinated now.
To be honest, that's better than I thought we would be at this point, and it shows that at least half of us aren't stupid. It's also a lot better than the 34% in Alabama/Mississippi, where the hospitals are filling up with people who wish they'd gotten the vaccine.
