Safety Is an Important Part of Approving COVID-19 Vaccines
Last week, I had the privilege of being among a group of healthcare workers receiving some of the first COVID-19 vaccinations in Arizona. This was during an event held at ADHS. I was inspired by the reasons these professionals gave for wanting to get vaccinated right away, whether it was keeping patients, family, and friends safe or, as nurse Regina [...]
Vaccine Prioritization in Arizona
On Friday, December 11, the FDA announced its approval of an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met on Saturday, December 12, and recommended the vaccine for people age 16 and older. This week, the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Arizona. The first vaccine clinics will be launched in Maricopa [...]
Update: Improved Method for Determining ZIP code Data
Throughout the COVID-19 response, ADHS has continually reevaluated how we are collecting, analyzing, and presenting COVID-19 data for cases, hospitalizations, and laboratory tests. As the COVID-19 testing landscape changes, with new tests, new laboratories, and new guidance on who should be tested, and as data come to ADHS in new ways, we have examined whether any changes need to be [...]
New COVID-19 Data Dashboard Section Released: Total Tests Conducted
Since our COVID-19 response began in January, our epidemiologists have been reviewing and analyzing COVID-19 data. Our data reporting regarding this novel disease continues to evolve as we collect additional data and learn about which data elements are most useful to understand how COVID-19 is impacting Arizonans. Over the course of this response, our Data Dashboard has evolved to display [...]
Winter Holidays: Impacting COVID-19 Cases in Arizona
There are many impacts that the holidays can have on COVID-19 in Arizona. With people traveling and gathering with loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving, we anticipate the cases and the need for hospitalizations to continue to increase over the next few weeks. We also know that the holidays can have an impact on our public health system, resulting in the [...]
Syndromic Surveillance and COVID-Like Illness
Public health utilizes several surveillance tools to monitor the spread of disease throughout a community. These tools, like case reporting, laboratory reporting, and syndromic surveillance, generate many of the data points that are displayed on our COVID-19 data dashboard. These surveillance tools are also used to monitor the metrics we use to set business reopening status and recommend education delivery [...]