CDC says Arizona has US’s highest rate of new COVID-19 infections

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

The CDC’s U.S. map indicated Monday evening that the Copper State had surpassed neighboring California as well as other hot spots in South Carolina and Tennessee to surge into the lead with a spiking rate of new cases. The state is now reporting an average daily case rate of more than 121 per 100,000 people, the only state in the U.S. averaging more than 100 new cases a day per 100,000 residents.

Complicating Arizona’s data collection is a large portion of the state where information remains incomplete pending approval from the Native American tribal authorities. High rates of COVID-19 transmission are being reported across the state, but in particular around the capitol of Phoenix, according to state health officials.

Arizona is one of a handful of states that have been resistant to employ strict measures to control the virus. It does not have a mask mandate and remains largely devoid of restrictions on indoor dining, bars and nightclub activities that other states implemented months ago to slow COVID-19’s spread.

The state hit a record number of hospitalizations resulting from the virus last month, with more than 4,300 hospitalized across the state with COVID-19. Gov. Doug Ducey (R) briefly instituted stay-at-home measures last spring but declared as early as May that the state was “clearly on the other side of this pandemic” and relaxed those measures.