Arizona Covid Cases Up 3.7%, Phoenix Mayor Faults U.S. on Tests
Arizona Covid Cases Up 3.7%, Phoenix Mayor Faults U.S. on Tests
(Bloomberg) --
Arizona reported 3,536 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, a 3.7% rise, along with four new deaths, as the Phoenix mayor complained that federal officials were declining to help with more testing.
Cases have been rising at a 4.1% rate over the past seven days and now stand at 98,089. Arizona had 4,878 new infections on Wednesday, the most for a day.
“We opened way too early in Arizona,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego a Democrat, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We had crowded nightclubs handing out free champagne, no masks.”
Gallego faulted the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which had been providing testing facilities to help hard-hit states, for declining to provide additional community-based testing as the number of cases soared.
“We were told they’re moving away from that, which feels like they’re declaring victory while we’re still in crisis mode,” Gallego said. At one facility this weekend, people were waiting eight hours to be tested, she said.
The state reported 4 new deaths, down from a record 88 on Wednesday, putting the total at 1,809. Fatalities among those over age 65 accounted for 73% of all deaths in Arizona, according to the Department of Health website.
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