As the percentage of the population that has been infected with COVID-19 clears the 50% threshold, researchers are making advancements on research into the elusive long-COVID, a condition related to infection with COVID-19 that continues well after initial infection and recovery.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)...
Fallout from COVID-19 policies continue as hospitals nationwide struggle to maintain a workforce. Nurse and healthcare worker unions and advocacy organizations blame hospital policies and reduced pay for the worker shortages. OSHA moved to revoke Arizona's state plan after ongoing violations of federal policy to enforce worker...
As Arizona approaches the two-year mark from Governor Doug Ducey's March 30, 2020 executive order mandating the closure of certain businesses and a stay-at-home advisory for all Arizonans, the Arizona Republic reflects on what has happened in those two years of the public health emergency. Following three major surges of COVID-19 in just...
As COVID-19 cases drastically subside following the surge related to the Omicron variant, Americans are beginning to relax restrictions and anxieties related to the pandemic. However, other countries around the world are now struggling to contain Omicron surges that arrived much later and experts are warning that complacency could invite...
The official number of global deaths from COVID-19 surpassed six million on Monday, 4% of which were recorded in the last month. The United States is very close to reaching a million deaths on its own, and Arizona's death count exceeded the 28,000 marker this week.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19...
In Tuesday's State of the Union Address, President Biden announced that "it's time for Americans to get back to work," and outlined new efforts to return the public to normal activities after two years of the pandemic related to COVID-19. The White House subsequently announced a "National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan," on Wednesday...
The U.S. is now reporting over one million new cases of COVID-19 per day as a result of the surge caused by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. As cases spike, the federal government has been slow to act as quickly as in prior surges, motivating healthcare industry workers and the public to criticize the response.
Vaccine boosters...
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a new report with heartening results on a study of 1.2 million fully vaccinated adults in which only 327 were hospitalized and 36 died due to COVID-19.
The CDC study involved patients seen at 465 healthcare facilities across the U.S. from December 2020 to...
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the nation in an attempt to calm fears about skyrocketing COVID-19 cases and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. The president leaned on the vaccine for mitigating hospitalization rates as the cases continue to surge due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.
We have in...
The new year brings a new surge of COVID-19, this time driven by the Omicron variant which researchers regard somewhat optimistically. Even still, schools are gearing up for a staff shortage as the governor and school administrators vow there won't be school closures. Additionally, the Arizona Department of Health Services released a...
Over the holiday weekend, the Omicron variant officially became the dominant form of COVID-19 in the United States, out-competing the Delta variant that held dominance since the summer. In response to holiday travel and increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, many Americans are seeking out rapid at-home COVID-19 tests, as well...
In 2021, nearly one in five healthcare workers left their jobs, exacerbating a crisis for the healthcare workforce at large that pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing workforce advocates warn that new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could worsen the crisis in the new year as hospitalizations due to...
Last Friday, the Arizona Public Health Association (AzPHA) published a report analyzing the increase in all-cause mortality in Arizona since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report reviewed the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data sets "Excess Deaths Associated...
The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa and prompted concerns among scientists and global public health officials because it carries an unusually high number of mutations. The World Health Organization has called Omicron a "variant of concern". Cases have been identified in 20 countries so far, including the United...
On Wednesday, Arizona reported 2,180 new cases of COVID-19 and 124 deaths related to COVID-19. This brings the total of COVID-19 related deaths to 21,273. There were 20,976 vaccine doses administered in Arizona on Wednesday, including booster shots. 59% of the state is vaccinated. The number of intensive care unit beds in use also rose,...
Nationwide, community transmission of COVID-19 remains high and 77.8% of Americans over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Over 190 million people have been fully vaccinated and 14.4 million have received a booster dose. In Arizona, over 8 million vaccine doses have been administered with 58.9% of...
Cases of COVID-19 appear to be on the downward trend nationally, as the number of new cases on October 12 falls to 111,707. Last month at this time, the surge related to the Delta variant of COVID-19 was at its worst with a seven-day average of over 175,000 new cases per day. There were 1,938 new deaths related to the coronavirus on...
On October 5, there were 101,668 new cases of COVID-19 reported across the entire United States and 1,808 new deaths. At least 65% of Americans of all ages have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 56% are fully vaccinated. Transmission rates remain high nationwide, largely due to the spread of the more-contagious Delta...
COVID-19 cases and deaths have now returned to levels not seen since last winter's surge, driven by the delta variant and vaccine hesitancy in many pockets of the U.S. In Arizona, on Wednesday, September 15, there were 2,432 new cases reported and 29 new deaths reported related to COVID-19.
Dr. Marjorie Bessel, Chief Medical Officer...News
This week a large amount of analysis on how the Affordable Care Act, insurance rates and private insurance faired during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Also, due to increased enrollment during the special enrollment period and the need for health insurance spurred by pandemic-related job loss has encouraged insurance giant...
