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 [...]
The arrival of winter visitors is a welcome indication of cooler days ahead. If you are a returning visitor or discovering our state’s cooler months, welcome! We want you to be safe and healthy while you're here, and we need your help to protect everyone this winter. With COVID-19 still active in our communities, I [...]
Aside from a child’s home, no other setting has more influence on a child’s health and well-being than their school. Schools provide education instruction, support the development of social and emotional skills, facilitate physical activity, and address nutrition needs. On October 22, ADHS released updates to the school benchmarks. For details, visit my blog post [...]
As a mom of young kids attending in-person learning, nothing is more important to me than the health of our kids and the safety of our schools. Close coordination across the public health system and partnering with our education experts is critical to an effective response and safely returning kids to the classroom. The Arizona [...]
Global and national COVID-19 cases have increased over the last several weeks, and now that trend is occurring in Arizona, too. While our state is not currently experiencing a surge to the degree other locations are experiencing right now, we have recently seen a shift of COVID-19 spread in the state in the wrong direction. [...]
Although a COVID-19 vaccine is not yet available, public health professionals across Arizona and around the country are already hard at work laying the groundwork for efficient and inclusive allocation and distribution of the vaccine. We don’t know when and how the vaccine is coming, quite yet. But based on lessons learned with the 2009 [...]
I’m guessing that your children, like mine, have asked the same panicked questions as Oct. 31 approaches: Will there be trick-or-treating this Halloween? What about other fun? To these kiddos and their parents, I’m pleased to say that trick-or-treating can be done safely, but it’s no time to let down your guard since COVID-19 is [...]
As we continue to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic, we track important outcomes to identify the course of the disease. Hospitalization is one of those metrics that can provide additional information to public health officials to target interventions and identify groups at higher risk for more severe disease. We track hospitalization in several ways: Using syndromic [...]
Over the next couple of days, Arizona will be adding a significantly higher number of cases than our recent average. This is a result of advancements in testing, and includes recently classified positive antigen cases dating back over the previous several months. In late August, a fourth antigen test was authorized by the Food and [...]
This is the third week of National Preparedness Month, and this week’s theme is “Prepare for Disasters.” Depending on where you live, you might face a variety of different hazards. Common types of disasters in Arizona include wildfires, flooding, power outages, and severe storms. Knowing which type of disasters are most likely to affect you [...]
