Arizona Coronavirus Update: 1,753 Cases, 38 Deaths

ARIZONA — The Arizona Department of Health Services reported 1,743 new coronavirus cases and 38 confirmed deaths Thursday — a higher number than the agency has reported in weeks. The data is based on 24,856 tests.

The health department said that the larger-than-normal number is because the totals now include results from antigen tests that date back several months. Arizona's number of cases and deaths have been trending down for weeks and just under 11 percentof tests are coming back positive.

"Over the next couple of days, Arizona will be adding a significantly higher number of cases than our recent average," Dr. Cara Christ, director of the health services department, explained in a blog post. "This is a result of advancements in testing, and includes recently classified positive antigen cases dating back over the previous several months. "

The Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of the antigen tests in diagnosing the coronavirus in late August. These tests can detect if someone is currently infected by looking for specific parts of the virus in a respiratory sample. Previously, antigen tests were only included in Arizona's data if a person was known to be exposed to someone with the virus or experienced some of its symptoms, like shortness of breath or a cough.

Christ said that the antigen tests may not be as accurate or able to run as many patient samples per day as others but the quick results "provide the ability to rapidly triage and make decisions."

About 577 probable cases were added to Thursday's numbers. The majority of these are antigen positives collected in September, most of them from Pima County. The remaining positive antigen tests will be added tomorrow, according to the department of health services.

"This change will provide a more accurate picture of COVID-19 in Arizona moving forward," Christ said in her blog.