First coronavirus death in Graham County

SAFFORD — Graham County has experienced its first COVID-19 related death.

Graham County Health Department announced Tuesday that a Graham County resident in his/her 70s, with underlying health conditions, died as a result of COVID-19. The Health Department did not release the person’s name or community of residence.

In addition, the Health Department announced two more confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the county’s total to 25 since the start of the pandemic. The two latest cases are related to the same cluster as those identified Monday, May 25.

One of the new cases lives in Safford while the other lives in Pima.

Other than the five positive cases identified this week, all others are fully recovered. That’s according to Health Department Director Brian Douglas.

“Our definition of ‘fully recovered’ are those known positive cases who have gone 14 days after symptoms have broken. All have fully recovered from our first two clusters. Our third cluster is less than a week old,” Douglas said in a text to Gila Valley Central.

Five of the positive cases have been person 20 and younger, 11 are 35 to 55 years old and nine have 65 years old or older.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, Graham County has an infection rate of 65 per 100,000 population.

Graham County accounts for 3.3 percent of all the positive tests in the state.

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