The Arizona Department of Health Services released a massive number of new COVID-19 cases Sunday.
ADHS reported more than 17,000 new cases of coronavirus, marking the highest daily total ever recorded and the casualties from the pandemic continue to rip apart Valley families.
“He was never able to say goodbye to his children, he was never able to say goodbye to his wife,” said Yolanda Garcia.
Family friends of Fransisco Sosa were left shaken. The father of four’s sudden passing was yet another blow in an already devastating year.
“We did have high hopes seeing that he was young and that he had no underlying conditions, we really thought he would make it through this,” said Garcia.
Sosa worked construction which paid the family bills. He and his wife Sandra just kept their heads above water after the pandemic all but shut down their party rental business.
Then in December, that same virus put Sosa in the hospital.
“Every day his condition in his lungs worsened,” said Garcia.
Over the past 11 days, more than 1,000 Arizonans have died from the coronavirus, and the state added 17,234 new cases Sunday.
According to ABC15 Data Guru Garrett Archer, there’s no doubt we’re in a holiday surge.
“The real issue is not just these high case numbers, it’s that these high case numbers will fold over, a certain percentage of them are going to end up in Arizona’s hospitals at a time when Arizona does not have any room in its hospitals,” said Archer.
Right now, about eight to 10 percent of people who contract COVID-19 end up in the hospital.
The sheer numbers are hard to grasp at times, but one thing is certain says Archer. “While we use statistics, human beings are not statistics.”
That’s because every one of them has a story. People who love and care for them. Who mourn their absence each and every moment they’ll now miss in the future.
In the case of Sosa, his children's birthdays, graduations, marriages and the rest of life’s irreplaceable moments. Those same people now in so much pain, tasking us to do better.
“I believe that we’ll be able to save a lot of lives if we all do a little bit, just a little bit,” said Garcia.
Sosa was the sole provider for his family who now has no income to depend on. If you would like to help support funeral and burial costs for the family,visit their GoFundMe.