PHOENIX — Arizona health officials on Sunday reported more than 2,000 additional COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day as the number of virus-related hospitalizations continued to rise.
The state’s coronavirus dashboard reported 2,639 additional cases and 12 deaths, increasing the pandemic totals to 946,054 cases and 18,388 known deaths.
Health officials had reported 2,653 cases Saturday with 34 deaths.
While the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all increased in the past month, levels remain far below those of the surges last summer and winter.
"I'm not surprised, I think this is expected," said Dr. Shad Marvasti, Director of Public Health at the University of Arizona.
Compared to August 2020, the number of cases has doubled, according to ABC15 Data Analyst Garrett Archer.
"Last year at this time, Arizona was coming down the COVID-19 surge," he said.
"We were about 1,200 cases a day in early August," Archer added. "Today, we are double that and we are on the other end of the curve -- we are rising right now," he said.
According to Marvasti, the increase is due to a lack of masks and a lack of individuals getting vaccinated. He also told ABC15 the numbers will likely increase in the coming weeks.
"Right now we are definitely tracking up as an entire country," he said.
The Arizona dashboard shows 53.3% of the state’s population have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 3.3 million
Arizonans are fully vaccinated (47% of the population).