Mohave County logs 271 COVID cases, 3 deaths in abbreviated reporting period

KINGMAN – Mohave County suffered just 271 additional COVID-19 cases and three deaths from complications of the virus in the most-recent report issued by the Mohave County Department of Public Health on Monday, Jan. 24.

But look for dramatically higher numbers when the next semi-weekly update is issued on Thursday, Jan. 27 by the county.

“There were no cases reported (by the state to the county) for Saturday, Sunday and today,” county health officials wrote in a news release on Monday, noting there “is likely a delay in that reporting due to the number of tests being run by the labs throughout the state of Arizona.”

The cases for those three days will be added to the count for this Thursday’s Mohave County COVID report, the county continued. Monday’s report only covered cases and deaths reported by the state to the county on Friday, Jan. 21.

All three of the deaths and 85 of the new cases were logged in the Kingman medical service area. The newly deceased included one patient each in the 50-59, 60-69 and 70-79 age brackets.

Of the 85 new local cases, more than one-third were recorded in the age groups over 50 that have accounted for 95% of the deaths in the county since the beginning of the pandemic. There were 13 new cases ages 60-69, 10 ages 50-59, five ages 70-79 and two ages 80-89.

Another nine local cases were reported for children and teens, including six ages 11-19 and three ages 0-10. There were also 21 cases ages 40-49, 16 ages 30-39 and nine ages 20-29.

The Bullhead City area logged the most new cases of the county’s four medical service areas with 124. There were also 53 new cases in the Lake Havasu City service area, five in the communities in the Arizona Strip and four in undetermined locations in the county.

Due to the presence of the highly infectious omicron variant of the virus, Mohave County set a new monthly record for new COVID-19 cases this month, with 8,871 cases recorded through Friday, Jan. 21.

The previous mark was set during the height of the winter surge in January 2021, with 5,402 cases logged in the 31-day month.

The county is a high-transmission area, and the number of new cases has doubled in each of the past three weeks, with 4,861 new cases and 21 deaths confirmed in the eight-day period between noon on Monday, Jan. 10 and noon on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

There were 2,111 new virus cases logged by county health officials in the week ending Monday, Jan. 10; 1,002 new cases and seven deaths in the week ending Jan. 3; and 526 new cases and 22 deaths in the week ending Wednesday, Dec. 29.

The county’s dismal vaccination rate has contributed to the surge in new cases. Breakthrough cases among vaccinated patients represented less than 10% of all cases in the county in December.

AZDHS reports that only 45.2% of eligible county residents have received a COVID-19 vaccine, which have proven effective at preventing the disease and lessening the severity of breakthrough illnesses. That places Mohave far below the 68% vaccination rate logged statewide. More than one-third of county residents – 78,367 of about 213,000 – are fully vaccinated.

According to the county’s website, Kingman has suffered the most with 298 coronavirus deaths. It is followed by Bullhead City with 282, Lake Havasu City with 225, Golden Valley with 73, Fort Mohave with 92 and Mohave Valley with 33. The locations of the remaining deaths are not specified by the county on its website.

Broken down by cities and communities, the county has recorded 12,106 cases in Kingman, 10,859 cases in Lake Havasu City, 10,585 in Bullhead City, 3,538 in Fort Mohave, 2,243 in Golden Valley, 1,557 in Mohave Valley and 714 in Beaver Dam/Littlefield/Colorado City. There have also been 278 cases in Topock, 233 in Dolan Springs, 116 in Meadview and 103 in Yucca. The locations of the remaining cases are not specified.

The age of the average COVID-19 victim in the county is 72.1 years, while the average patient is 44.7 years old. The case fatality rate in the county is 2.4%, meaning 24 of every 1,000 individuals who have contracted the virus have died. Approximately 21.4% of Mohave County residents are known to have been infected.

County health officials have logged 45,911 coronavirus cases since the first local case was reported on March 24, 2020, while the Arizona Department of Health Services has recorded 50,538 cases in the county. The county counts 1,090 deaths, while the state reports 1,260.

County health officials say 34,119 county residents are known to have recovered from the disease.

Daily testing data from AZDHS for Monday, Jan. 24 revealed 483 new cases from 881 tests in the county for a positivity rate of 55%.

Mohave County’s positivity rate was 70% (891/1,280) on Monday, Jan. 17; 34% (642/1,873) on Tuesday, Jan. 18; 36% (714/1,966) on Wednesday, Jan. 19; 23% (490/2,107) on Thursday, Jan. 20; 63% (1,072/1,699) on Friday, Jan. 21; and 73% (576/793) on Sunday, Jan. 23.

Since the beginning of the pandemic 365,898 tests have been conducted on county residents and 14.8% have been positive, according to AZDHS.

Statewide on Tuesday, Jan. 25 AZDHS was reporting no additional deaths but 13,972 new cases from 40,377 tests for a positivity rate of 35%. More than 1,781,274 Arizonans have contracted the virus and 25,624 have died.

Nationwide, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine was reporting more than 71 million confirmed cases and 868,530 deaths the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 25.

Globally, Johns Hopkins was reporting more than 5.6 million deaths from more than 355 million confirmed cases on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

County COVID-19 updates are only being issued on Mondays and Thursdays, after the board of supervisors decided to reduce the frequency from daily, and then again from three per week down to twice a week.

Vaccines are readily available at area pharmacies, physician offices and the Kingman Regional Medical Center COVID Services office at the corner of Stockton Hill Road and Detroit Avenue. Treatments for COVID-19 are also now available.

Residents age 5 and up can now be vaccinated, and booster shots are recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for all persons age 12 and older if it’s been six months since they received their second Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or two months since they’ve received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

The CDC is recommending that Americans be inoculated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, due to the slim possibility that blood clotting could result from taking the J&J vaccine.

To curtail virus spread, public health officials recommend that the unvaccinated maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from others, wash their hands thoroughly and frequently, and wear a face covering when social distancing isn’t possible.

Free COVID-19 home test kits are now available from the federal government at COVIDTests.gov. The free kits are limited to four per household.

Free high-quality N95 masks will also be made available to the public at pharmacies and community health centers starting next week.

For some patients, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, or no symptoms at all. For others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. Some individuals with the virus, including those who have been fully vaccinated, can exhibit no symptoms, but are still capable of transmitting the disease.

The Kingman medical service area includes Kingman, New-Kingman/Butler, Chloride, Valentine, Meadview, Wikieup, Yucca, White Hills, Hackberry, Peach Springs, Valle Vista and Oatman.