I’m grateful that so many people rely on our data dashboard for daily updates on the status of COVID-19 and vaccinations in Arizona. As the dashboard upgrades we made this week show, we are constantly looking for ways to make our data more valuable for all.

With that goal in mind, additional system updates we’ll be making over the weekend mean that the ADHS dashboard won’t post updated cases, deaths, hospitalization and testing numbers on Sunday, Oct. 17, or Monday, Oct. 18. The dashboard will still be available, with vaccine and hospital numbers related to utilization (such as beds and ventilators) continuing to update, but other numbers will remain the same for those two days. 

When the dashboard updates next on Tuesday, Oct. 19, it will have three days’ worth of reporting for cases, deaths, and testing. So there most likely will be an unusually high number of additions that morning. We expect daily additions to get back to normal levels in the days after.

The system update requiring this temporary pause in reporting involves how we receive data electronically from laboratories around Arizona and beyond. It will help us continue sharing information quickly so everyone has the best view possible on where COVID-19 and vaccination stand in our state. 

While we’re on the subject of data dashboard updates, it bears repeating that most of the COVID-19 cases and nearly all of the hospitalizations and deaths added each day involve people who aren’t vaccinated. In rare cases in which vaccinated individuals contract COVID-19, vaccination has been found to offer robust protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

If you aren’t vaccinated, I strongly encourage you to put any questions you have to your doctor and consider getting one of these safe, free, highly effective, and widely available vaccines. You can find a location at azdhs.gov/FindVaccine and get vaccinated today. 

In addition:

  • If you received the Pfizer vaccine and are recommended for a booster at this time, including those 65 and older, please get one. This helps ensure you have the best protection possible.
  • Even if you are fully vaccinated, continue following the proven mitigation strategies, including masking indoors around those you don’t live with, while COVID-19 spread in Arizona remains high or substantial.