PHOENIX β State officials on Wednesday reported three more diagnosed cases of the coronavirus in Arizona, raising the statewide total to nine patients, including five members of one Pinal County household.
The Maricopa County public health department said one of the three additional patients was a man in his 90s hospitalized in stable condition, while Pinal County officials said the other two additional patients are people over 60 years old and are from the same household that includes three previously reported patients.
The cases are under investigation, and the patients βare recovering at home," Pinal County officials said in a statement.
The first of the reported Pinal County patients was a female health care worker in her 40s who works in Maricopa County and whose case was the first in Arizona to be attributed to so-called βcommunity spread" because officials have said neither she nor any of her βclose contactsβ had recently traveled to a country with widespread cases.
Pinal County is between Phoenix and Tucson and contains rural areas as well as suburbs on the southern outskirts of metro Phoenix.
The state Department of Health Service's virus website as of Wednesday indicated that the three additional cases were among eight believed to have resulted from person-to-person contact. One case was listed as travel-related.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. People with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take longer to recover, according to the World Health Organization.
No virus-related deaths in Arizona have been reported.
Presumptive positive cases in Arizona have been tested positive by the state public health laboratory but awaited confirmation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has confirmed two of the Arizona cases, according to the state website.
Also Wednesday, federal officials announced that the CDC will provide $11.2 million to Arizona to support the state's efforts to respond to the virus.
