PHOENIX — In late November of last year, Arizona was hit with a triple pandemic of rising COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza cases.
Increasing cases of respiratory viruses should be occurring now based on seasonal averages. Recent data, however, does not reflect the historic trends.
The state health department reported 6,187 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in the weekly numbers released Wednesday.
Of those cases, 3,327 of these cases occurred the week of December 25. This is an 80% decline in weekly case numbers since the seasonal peak four weeks prior when the state reported just under 16,000 confirmed cases. It is also the lowest weekly number since April of last year.
RSV-confirmed cases are also dropping.
Cases peaked at around 1,600 cases for three consecutive weeks in November but have fallen since by more than half to 724 in the most recent numbers.
This is still earlier, and well above the historical five-season averages for RSV.
Influenza is seeing a similar trend.
Confirmed flu cases exploded this year with 567 in late October rising to over 5,000 in the first week of December. Two weeks later the case numbers declined by 35%.
Like RSV, this season’s peak is earlier and well above five season averages.
Overall movement in case numbers for all three viruses is promising, but as the historic numbers show, the direction could still change.
Despite falling numbers, Arizona has recently surpassed Mississippi and now leads the U.S. in COVID-19 per capita deaths. The state health department reports 32,311 people have died because of the disease.
