Two weeks after Thanksgiving, the holiday may have led to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the Verde Valley, according to Yavapai County Community Health Services and an examination of case numbers in the weeks since.
From Nov. 20 through Nov. 27, the week of Thanksgiving, there were 295 new COVID-19 diagnoses in the Verde Valley. In the week after, from Nov. 27 through Dec. 4, when an increase in cases due to the holiday might have surfaced, there were 518 cases, a record high for the area. That number decreased in the week after, with 491 cases from Friday, Dec. 4 through Friday, Dec. 11, suggesting that while case spread remains high, it is not happening at quite the rapid rate that it was right after the holiday.
“I can tell you from this week, now that we’ve seen some testing results and some influx of cases after Thanksgiving, we may have seen a peak of cases following Thanksgiving,” YCCHS Director Leslie Horton told the Cottonwood- Oak Creek School District board at a meeting Dec. 8.
“We had one day where — now that we know the testing date when they occurred — 300 people tested positive on one day last week,” Horton said. “A lot of times, that was the people who convened on Thanksgiving, and a week later, five to seven days later, they test [positive] for COVID. That is when you’re going to see those spikes happen. What we’re hoping to see and what we have seen, even though it’s coming down gradually.”
There were two new COVID deaths in the Verde Valley in the past week, and Verde Valley Medical Center had 21 COVID- positive patients, as of the morning of Monday, Dec. 14.
“Yes, we had a spike after Thanksgiving, but we’re still at a substantially high rate,” YCCHS Public Information Officer Terri Farneti said. “It may be 30 cases per day different. It’s coming down a little bit, and we watch it every single day, but at 170 cases a day, it’s still concerning.”
YCCHS anticipates that there will likely be another similar spike for the December holidays, with little expectation that the area will be through its current wave until at least January, when some in the community will start to be vaccinated as well. YCCHS warned people to think about the pandemic when making holiday plans, including trying to avoid large indoor gatherings and keeping distance from relatives in high-risk categories.
