Arizona health agency reduces frequency of pandemic updates

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s public health agency has provided its final planned daily update of the state’s coronavirus dashboard of pandemic data such as additional COVID-19 cases, new deaths and hospitalization levels. The state Department of Health Services announced earlier this month that it would switch to weekly dashboard updates starting next Wednesday because the outbreak is slowing and to be consistent with other infectious disease that are reported. The department says the change also “provide a clearer view of COVID-19 trends by smoothing the variability in daily reporting by labs and other sources.”  In the dashboard’s final daily update on Saturday, virus-related inpatient hospitalizations dropped for the 29th straight day.