COVID-19 Update: Yavapai County has recorded 529 confirmed cases; Arizona closes in on 60,000

Yavapai County has recorded 529 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus), up 16 overnight, according to a Yavapai County Community Health Services (YCCHS) news release Wednesday, June 24.

YCCHS is continuing to perform contact tracing on all new cases and interviewing past positives to assess their recovery status, YCCHS Public Health Coordinator Terri Farneti said in the release. Yavapai County has tested 16,965 residents, with 302 recoveries and seven deaths.

Yavapai Regional Medical Center reports 12 COVID-19 patients and three persons under investigation (PUI). Verde Valley Medical Center reports 12 COVID hospitalizations and zero PUIs. The VA has reported one COVID-19 hospitalization and no PUIs.

Across the state, Arizona has recorded 59,974 confirmed cases and 1,463 deaths. The Arizona Department of Health Services added 1,795 positive cases since Tuesday and 79 deaths.

Statewide the percent-positive rate is 8.7%; locally it is 2.2%.

CASES AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE ON RISE

As much of the country presses forward with reopening, a growing number of cities and states are finding that the coronavirus outbreak now has a foothold in a younger slice of the population, with people in their 20s and 30s accounting for a larger share of new coronavirus infections, the Yavapai County Community Health Services reports.

Public health experts said the trend could be explained in several ways.

More people are getting coronavirus tests. The criteria for who gets tested as well as the capacity to test them have expanded since the beginning of the pandemic.

Early on, generally only people with symptoms or who were seriously ill could get tested at all. Some public health experts have said the increase is because some younger adults may perceive they are less at risk than their parents or grandparents and are more likely to venture back into society as it reopens — that could mean going to restaurants or social gatherings or returning to the workplace.

Young people are more likely to have milder outcomes from coronavirus, but they can still infect others who are more at risk. The increase in younger coronavirus patients and the decrease in the daily U.S. death toll could be related, as younger people tend to have better outcomes once infected.

Experts say there are ways to minimize risk as people try to get back to some level of normal life without pushing the economy back into a lockdown. They include wearing face coverings, remaining vigilant about hand hygiene, staying about 6 feet away from others in public and avoiding others if you become sick.

INFORMATION

• For Yavapai County data and COVID-19 resources: www.yavapai.us/chs.

• For the state: https://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/infectious-disease-epidemiology/covid-19/dashboards/index.php.

• Yavapai Emergency Phone Bank: 928-442-5103, open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Arizona 2-1-1: A resource for all the time, not just during COVID-19: https://211arizona.org.

• COVID-19 information en español: https://azhealth.gov/covid-19.

• Mental health resources - #Yavapai Stronger Together: https://justicementalhealth.com/resources-support/#covid19.