PHOENIX — Arizona health officials will soon go from releasing new state COVID-19 statistics every day to every week.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona, who has been a special adviser to Gov. Doug Ducey, announced the change Friday on the state Department of Health Services’ website.
The ADHS #COVID19 data dashboard is changing from daily updates to weekly updates starting in March. Learn more: https://t.co/wAeNBrQDoN pic.twitter.com/HDRRI6WuGb
— AZ Dept of Health (@AZDHS) February 18, 2022
In a blog post, Carmona said it was the right time to cut down to updating the state dashboard weekly “with all COVID-19 metrics steadily declining.”
Jessica Rigler, assistant director of AZDHS, told ABC15 that the changes were recommended by the data and epidemiology teams to bring COVID-19 reporting more in line with how other infectious diseases tracked by the department are monitored.
Other changes to the reporting: COVID-19 hospitalization data will now have a reporting lag of two weeks, while COVID-19 death reporting will lag by four weeks. Rigler said that this change gives the epidemiology team time to conduct their regular investigations on each case.
The post also had sign-offs from chief clinical officers at Arizona's major hospital systems.
The state will release new data every Wednesday beginning March 2.