On Wednesday, June 16, the Arizona Department of Health Services logged 436 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 new deaths. The cases total is now at 888,005 and deaths are now at 17,791 total. The percent positives for COVID-19 tests is 9.9%. Statewide, there are 554 inpatient COVID-19 patients and 120 intensive care unit beds in use by COVID-19 patients.
This information comes courtesy of the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19 data dashboard.
The state of Arizona received more than $1 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds. The Arizona Republic has analysis looking at where that funding was meant to go and how it has been handled by AHDS. According to the Republic, the money will be used to support Arizona’s public health infrastructure in addition to improving vaccination rates and paying for testing in K-12 schools. ADHS Director Dr. Cara Christ:
Now, these dollars are really for two and three-year-long plans, and we are carefully developing those plans to make sure that those dollars are used efficiently and that they are going to be used to protect the public health… because it really is supposed to set up long-term plans for responding to COVID.
The breakdown of how the funds will be distributed according to ADHS is as follows, from the Arizona Republic:
- Epidemiology and lab capacity: $589,527,634.
- School testing: $219,231,387.
- Vaccine preparedness: $148,418,488.
- Public health workforce: $66,670,464.
- Emergency response: $16,221,912.
- Other: $1,789,846, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And ADHS says they have applied for a COVID-19 health equity grant of $34,603,662 from the CDC.
According to analysis of data by the University of Minnesota, public health spending in Arizona is among the lowest in the country.
COVID-19 Other Effects on Health
A quarter of the people who had COVID-19 sought medical care for new issues at least one month after diagnosis, according to a study conducted by the nonprofit FAIR Health. Through analysis of health insurance claims, 23.2% of COVID-19 patients — nearly half a million people — sought care for at least one post-COVID-19 symptom at least 30 days after diagnosis, according to the Hill. The most common new condition was pain, including nerve inflammation and aches and pains with more than 5% reporting the symptom.
The U.S. also saw increases in death rates for indirect COVID-19 related illnesses during the public health emergency. The Morning Call reports that the heart disease death rate, which previously had been falling, rose to 167 deaths per 100,000 population up from 161.5 in 2019. Diabetes deaths also rose to 24.6 per 100,000 last year, up from 21.6 the year prior, which translates to 13,000 more diabetes deaths than in 2019.
Furthermore, data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that suicide attempts by teenage girls increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medscape reports that among children and adolescents aged 12 to 17, the average weekly number of emergency department visits was 22.3% higher in the summer and almost 40% higher in the winter than in 2019. Between February 21 and March 20, 2021, the number of ED visits for suspected suicide attempts was 51% higher among girls aged 12 to 17. Among boys, suspected suicide attempts increased 4%.
FDA Updates
According to a news release by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as of June 11, 384 tests and sample collection devices are authorized under the Emergency Use Authorization. The FDA added more than 100 ventilators and accessories for emergency use to the ventilator EUA and there are more than 620 drug development programs in the planning stages and ten EUAs for COVID-19 treatments.
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