Mohave County reports 1,173 new COVID cases, 11 deaths

KINGMAN – COVID-19 continues to take a toll on the elderly in Mohave County, with 11 deaths reported in the age groups over age 60 by the Mohave County Department of Public Health on Thursday, Jan. 27. The report, which included 1,173 new confirmed cases in the county, covered the three-day period between Monday, Jan. 24 and Thursday.

The majority of the deaths were recorded in the Bullhead City medical service area – five ages 70-79 and one each ages 80-89 and 90-plus.

Elsewhere, a Kingman resident age 60-69, and three in the Lake Havasu City area – two ages 70-79 and one age 80-89 – also perished.

Of the 1,173 new cases, there were 460 logged in the Kingman area, including 181 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 69 new cases ages 50-59, 65 ages 60-69, 40 ages 70-79, five ages 80-89 and two age 90 or older.

Another 102 cases were recorded in children and teens, including 58 ages 11-19 and 44 ages 0-10. There were also 67 cases ages 30-39, 60 ages 40-49 and 50 ages 20-29.

The Bullhead City area suffered the most new cases of the county’s four medical service areas with 515. There were also 173 new cases in the Lake Havasu City area, 14 in the communities in the Arizona Strip and 11 in undetermined areas of 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 more than 10,000 cases recorded through Wednesday, Jan. 26. The previous mark was set during the height of the winter surge in January 2021, with 5,402 cases logged in the entire month.

The county is a high-transmission area, and the number of new cases had doubled for three consecutive 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.

The county’s inability to tabulate cases logged from noon on Saturday, Jan. 22 through noon on Monday, Jan. 24 makes a more-recent weekly comparison impossible. Cases and deaths from those days are also excluded from the county’s total case and death count.

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.

Mohave 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 45.4% 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 68.4% vaccination rate logged statewide. More than one-third of county residents – 78,668 of about 213,000 – are fully vaccinated.

According to the county’s website, Kingman has suffered the most with 300 coronavirus deaths.

It is followed by Bullhead City with 288, Lake Havasu City with 228, Golden Valley with 73, Fort Mohave with 93 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 13,529 cases in Kingman, 11,544 cases in Lake Havasu City, 11,479 in Bullhead City, 3,873 in Fort Mohave, 2,399 in Golden Valley, 1,668 in Mohave Valley and 736 in Beaver Dam/Littlefield/Colorado City.

There have also been 304 cases in Topock, 247 in Dolan Springs, 120 in Meadview and 117 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 44.6 years old.

The case fatality rate in the county is 2.3%, meaning 23 of every 1,000 individuals who have contracted the virus have died. Approximately 22% of Mohave County residents are known to have been infected.

County health officials have logged 47,224 coronavirus cases since the first local case was reported on March 24, 2020, while the Arizona Department of Health Services has recorded 52,608 cases in the county. The county counts 1,102 deaths, while the state reports 1,281.

County health officials say 34,592 county residents are known to have recovered from the disease.

Daily testing data from AZDHS for Friday, Jan. 28 revealed 586 new cases from 1,411 tests in the county for a positivity rate of 42%.

Mohave County’s positivity rate was 63% (1,072/1,699) on Friday, Jan. 21; 73% (576/793) on Sunday, Jan. 23; 55% (483/881) on Monday, Jan. 24; 28% (525/1,882) on Tuesday, Jan. 25; 52% (414/792) on Wednesday, Jan. 26; and 17% (545/3,137) on Thursday, Jan. 27.

Since the beginning of the pandemic 373,317 tests have been conducted on county residents and 15.2% have been positive, according to AZDHS.

Statewide on Saturday, Jan. 29 AZDHS was reporting 182 additional deaths and 15,506 new cases from 63,777 tests for a positivity rate of 24%. More than 1,844,796 Arizonans have contracted the virus and 26,183 have died.

Nationwide, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine was reporting more than 74 million confirmed cases and 883,225 deaths the morning of Saturday, Jan. 29.

Globally, Johns Hopkins was reporting nearly 5.7 million deaths from more than 371 million confirmed cases on Saturday, Jan. 29.

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.