COVID-19 outcomesAs Omicron rapidly emerged as Arizona’s dominant COVID-19 variant in December, vaccines continued offering robust protection against hospitalization and death. That’s according to a new report detailing COVID-19 variant trends and the latest update to our report on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status

The new report on variants shows week-by-week how Omicron pushed aside the Delta variant during December. It breaks down sequenced COVID-19 cases by age group and county. It also shows the proportion of sequenced cases of each variant that were hospitalized or died from COVID-19. You’ll find a comparison between the demographics of sequenced cases and those of all reported COVID-19 cases, which are currently very similar.

The first page shows the most recent seven weeks of data, with a one-month lag, summarizing sequencing results in Arizona. Subsequent pages, which contain more detailed information, show data from Jan. 1, 2021, through the most recent two-week period. 

It’s linked above the COVID-19 Data Dashboard along with our report on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status, which shows that in December unvaccinated people had a four times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19, a 24.4 times greater risk of COVID-19 hospitalization, and a 58 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated people. 

New COVID-19 variants will continue to emerge as long as large numbers of people continue to be infected. One of the most important steps all Arizonans ages 5 and older can take to reduce COVID-19 transmission is to get vaccinated and boosted. Today’s update to COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status underscores just how effective these safe, free, and widely available vaccines are at preventing severe illness and death. 

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released yesterday on COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status adds an important element to this discussion: Fully vaccinated adults with a booster dose during Omicron’s ascent were 23 times less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated people, versus five times less likely for people who were fully vaccinated but lacked a booster dose. That’s all the more reason for everyone eligible to get a booster dose. 

Visit azhealth.gov/FindVaccine to find a vaccination location near you.