Arizona and COVID-19: Three-Year Experience 2020-22
Author(s):
Howard J Eng
It had been more than three years COVID-19 appeared in the world. Since Arizona Governor Doug Ducey had declared a State of Emergency to combat COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, the state had gone through three Reopening Phases. ABC and NBC News reported that the state had the highest new cases per capital in the world during Arizona’s Reopening Phase 2 winter surge in 2020. The state had been in Reopening Phase 3 since March 5, 2021. Arizona is about the same size as Italy. The study examined three years of the state’s COVID-19 pandemic. On December 28, 2022, there were 2,378,334 COVID-19 cases, 127,887 hospitalizations, 32,182 deaths, and 13,599,422 vaccine doses administered. The COVID-19 virus had been persistence. The virus continued to mutate, multiple, and spread. New variants emerged and resisted vaccines and therapeutics. During the three years, case numbers rose (542,653 in 2020, 838,835 in 2021, and 996,846 in 2022) and there has been periodic case surges. Between 2021and 2022, the case hospitalization and death percentages had declined.