CDC Says Arizona Has Highest Rate Of New COVID-19 Infections In United States

Arizona has become the state with the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracker reported on Monday.

The CDC’s U.S. map showed Monday night that the copper state had overtaken neighboring California as well as other hot spots in South Carolina and Tennessee to take the lead with a skyrocketing rate of new cases. The state now reports an average daily case rate of more than 121 per 100,000 population, with the only state in the United States averaging more than 100 new cases per day per 100,000 population.

Arizona’s data collection complicates much of the state where information remains incomplete pending approval from Native American tribal authorities. High rates of COVID-19 transmission are being reported statewide, but particularly around the capital city of Phoenix, according to state health officials.

Arizona is one of the few states that has resisted the use of strict measures to control the virus. It does not have a mask warrant and remains largely without restrictions on indoor dining, bar and nightclub activities that other states implemented months ago to slow the spread of COVID -19.

The state recorded a record number of hospitalizations resulting from the virus last month, with more than 4,300 hospitalized statewide with coronavirus. Gov. Doug DuceyDoug DuceySeven heads to Senate in 2022 Arizona sets record for COVID-19 patients in ICUs Voters voted for Biden amid simmering national tensions MORE (R), briefly instituted stay-at-home measures last spring, but said as early as May that the state was “clearly on the other side of this pandemic” and relaxed those measures.