Arizona reports 1,961 new COVID-19 cases, 1 new death

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona health officials are reporting 1,961 new COVID-19 cases and one new death.

It’s the first time this month the daily new-case count has been under 2,000. The state Department of Public Health Services released the latest virus figures Monday, which now have Arizona at a total of 1,266,809 cases and 22,230 deaths.

Hospitalizations hit a new peak with 2,581 people in hospital beds due to COVID-19 as of Sunday. The current surge’s last peak was 2,574 last week.

Public health experts worry about a major rise in cases and hospitalizations in the weeks following Thanksgiving, where more people with mixed vaccination status gathered indoors. There are also growing concerns about the omicron variant, which has popped up in other countries.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, Arizona’s seven-day rolling average of daily new cases dipped slightly to 3,475 on Saturday from 3,681.9 on Friday.

The state’s rolling average of daily deaths decreased from 41.6 to 40.7.