Dr. Cara Christ: COVID-19 In Arizona Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better
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MARK BRODIE: The State Department of Health Services reports a record-high number of cases today: 3,246. That brings the state total to 46,689 cases. 41 more people have died from COVID-19 in Arizona, bringing total deaths to 1,312. This is the third time this week we've set a record high for new cases. The number of people with COVID-19 has shot up 132% since June 1, when we had only 20,000 cases.
STEVE GOLDSTEIN: Those record infection numbers come as state and community leaders are asking people to wear masks in public. Earlier this morning, we talked to Dr. Cara Christ, the state's health services director, about whether she's alarmed by this continued dramatic increase.
DR. CARA CHRIST: So the numbers are concerning. We are seeing increases in the number of new cases reported each day. And today's is a record high with over 3,200 cases reported. So, we know that the numbers are going to continue to rise until those mitigation measures that the governor put into place on Wednesday start to take effect. But that's going to be a week or two before we start to see the effects of those mitigation measures.
BRODIE: Dr. Christ, do we have a sense of how long COVID-19 patients are staying in hospitals once they are admitted to them?
CHRIST: So, I think it's different depending on each patient. But we are hearing that some of the COVID-19 patients are requiring a longer stay, like up to 14 days, which, then, as you're adding additional patients into our hospitals, that can cause a backup, that can cause increased hospital usage.
BRODIE: Yeah, I wanted to ask about that, because when you talk about capacity, which has been a big thing that both you and Gov. Ducey have talked about, when you continue to add many new patients every day and you're not discharging other patients that have already been there, it sounds as though that doesn't really do much for the state's ability to maintain capacity.
CHRIST: Right. So we monitor the capacity every day and we are watching our ICU beds as well as our inpatient beds. Part of the Arizona surge line that we set up in Arizona has a unique feature that no other state has where we're also asking our long-term care and skilled nursing facilities to report how many beds they have so that we can potentially offload some of those patients that don't need that acute care, but still need to be somewhere into our long-term care or skilled nursing facilities to help with that. But we are watching our hospital capacity very closely.
GOLDSTEIN: Do you feel confident that the mitigation techniques you mentioned that the governor talked about earlier this week will be enough to, in fact, slow the spread and flatten the curve?
CHRIST: So we're hoping that it does have an impact. We know the two most important prevention measures that people can take are to stay home and physically distance, as well as to wear a mask when you are out in public or a cloth face covering. The data from CDC shows that it also had a protective effect for those individuals that were wearing a mask. So it protects you, it protects your family, it protects those around you. So we're hoping to see the data start to flatten.
BRODIE: Are you confident that, given the fact that lots of cities are starting to require masks – but the, there are exceptions, of course, to those, and, you know, there's, doesn't seem that a lot of cities want to be giving out tickets and really punishing people – are you confident that Arizonans will start taking this advice and wearing masks in public?
CHRIST: I'm hoping as they, as Arizonans see mask-wearing being normalized, that a lot of people are doing it. Just because the city doesn't require it doesn't mean that you can't wear a mask out in public. And we would encourage everyone to wear a mask when you're gonna be interacting with people who aren't normal close contacts or family members or household members. So we are hoping that the message will get out there, that it's important and it's for everyone's safety.
GOLDSTEIN: Should there have been a stronger message sent about masks, about continuing to socially distance even as the state was reopening?
CHRIST: I think we reopened at the right time. I think that there are other health impacts that we were monitoring that we were starting to become concerned with as well. And so we knew that we needed the long-term ramifications of a, like, a stay-at-home order will have longer lasting impacts on health. We have been promoting here at the department the use of masks since April, since CDC came out with it. I'm really glad that we could come out with some stronger language and that the governor, in coordination with the local leaders, was able to make that determination. This is a viral respiratory illness and we know that they are extremely hard to contain. We deal with them with flu every single year. And so stay home if you're sick. Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer. Cover your coughs and sneezes. And then just make sure that you are staying at least 6 feet from people who are not your normal close contacts.
Arizona Coronavirus Cases, Deaths
BRODIE: Dr. Christ, you mentioned that you're hopeful that, within a couple of weeks, you'll start to see the numbers go down a little bit as these mitigation techniques take effect. If they don't, I mean, is there a scenario under which you could see yourself suggesting to the governor that something stronger needs to happen, maybe another stay-at-home order or something, even less than that?
CHRIST: I think the nice thing with the approach that the governor has taken, it's this calm and steady approach, and we still have tools in the tool box that we can use, whether that's a statewide mandate for mask use, whether that's a safer-at-home order, a stay-at-home order. There are still things that we can do, but we are hoping that, you know, encouraging mask use with cities, requiring it as well as, you know, encourage, reminding people that it's still out there and there are steps that you can take and to stay home. You are safest at home with your normal close contacts. But we do realize people need to go out into the community.
GOLDSTEIN: Dr. Christ, finally, has the state, has your department learned from what other states and other communities have gone through? The state will be an even better shape to deal with if there is a second wave, for example.
CHRIST: So, yes, our team is watching what is going on in other states. In fact, that was why we proactively developed mitigation threats such as the Arizona surge line. We saw what happened in New York. That's why we wanted to add additional surge capacity, why we wanted alternative care sites like St. Luke's. And then this, the Arizona surge line. So, we are watching to see what other good ideas and best practices are out there so that we can, you know, keep Arizonans as healthy as possible.
BRODIE: Alright. That is Dr. Cara Christ, director of the State Department of Health Services. Dr. Christ, Thanks for your time. Be well.
CHRIST: Thank you. You too.
