MOHAVE COUNTY – A single day surge of 33 news cases last Friday is testament to the fact that COVID-19 is not slowing down in Mohave County. That’s one of the points Department of Public Health Director Denise Burley made during Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
“For the last three weeks we’ve seen a pretty steady increase; 30%, then 12% and then a 19% increase in cases from previous weeks,” Burley said. She also noted that change is detected in infection points.
“We want to be mindful of the fact that for the last two weeks the majority of those cases have not come from long-term care facilities as has been mainly our previous experience,” she said. “It’s important to note that we are transitioning into more cases being community acquired through family gatherings…larger gatherings of people and that is definitely spreading through the community.”
Burley said it’s important for the county to keep hammering home the various recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in slowing spread of coronavirus infections. She said those messages begin with stay at home if you feel sick.
Burley said she’ll be working with Communications Director Roger Galloway to see if there are new, creative ways to deliver handwashing, sanitization and crowd size messages that seem redundant given public bombardment.
A new COVID-19 hot spot was identified late last week after previous infection clusters were reported at the Desert Highlands Care Center in Kingman and the Joshua Springs Senior Living facility in Bullhead City. Data released by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirms 16 positive cases and four deaths tracing to Haven of Lake Havasu nursing home.
Another dozen suspected cases are linked to the same facility.
- Dave Hawkins
