THATCHER – Arizona is lagging when it comes to COVID-19 testing.
Forbes magazine combined testing data from the Centers for Disease Control and compared it to population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, and found that Arizona has the third-lowest number of tests conducted on a per capita basis.
Arizona has conducted 521 tests for 72 tests per million. Only Ohio, at 42 tests per million, and Maryland, at 56 tests per million, are lower.
Washington state has conducted the most tests on a per capita basis, at 4,055 per million, followed by New York at 3,156 per million. Both states have the highest numbers of positive cases of COVID-19, with New York reporting 21,689 and Washington with 2,221.
New Mexico, which CDC reports show having 83 positive cases, has conducted 5,386 tests for 2,569 tests per million.
As of Monday, Arizona had 253 positive cases of COVID-19, with two of the positive cases are in Graham County and one in Cochise. There are no reported cases in Greenlee County. There have been two deaths in Arizona thus far, both in Maricopa County.
Graham County Health Department officials have tested 35 people, with 15 tests coming back as negative. 18 test results are pending. Greenlee County Health Department reports testing 23 residents, with 10 returning as negative and 13 pending results.