Yavapai News

Yavapai County Community Health Services issued the following announcement on Aug. 6.

If you’re diagnosed in the U.S. with Covid-19, the odds are overwhelming that you have the Delta variant.  With the rise of this variant of coronavirus, everyone has questions about how they can stay safe and avoid infections, re-infections, or breakthrough cases. The extreme contagiousness of delta makes herd immunity an even more challenging target, infectious-disease experts have said. People who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are most at risk, and whether you’re vaccinated or not, it’s important to follow CDC prevention guidelines available for vaccinated and unvaccinated people.  Scientists are still gathering data and racing to answer how long immunity lasts from vaccines or from natural infection. https://www.cdc.gov/.../caring-for-children/families.html

While COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19,  a small share of fully vaccinated individuals do become infected, and some become hospitalized or have died. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently analyzed state-reported data and found that breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths are extremely rare events among those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The rate of breakthrough cases reported among those fully vaccinated is “well below 1 percent in all reporting states, ranging from 0.02 percent in Connecticut to 0.29 percent in Alaska,” according to the Kaiser analysis. The report indicated 5.9% of overall cases in Arizona among the fully vaccinated.  Source: https://www.kff.org/.../covid-19-vaccine-breakthrough.../

Yavapai County reports 382 COVID-19 cases and 6 deaths since Monday.  These deaths are attributed to ADHS review of death certificates. The county has tested 130,070 residents for COVID-19 and there have been 21,432 positive cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.  

The county is experiencing a high transmission rate, with 14.1% positivity and over 200 cases per 100k in population. As of today, 40.1% of Yavapai County residents over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated.  

Yavapai Regional Medical Center reports 40 COVID-19 patients (28 in Prescott/12 in Prescott Valley), VVMC reports 10, and the VA has 1 COVID-19 patient. 

If you are experiencing fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, sore throat, loss of taste or small, or bad cold, please get tested for COVID-19. There is a high demand for testing right now.  Testing sites:  https://yavapaiaz.gov/.../TestingSitesinYavapaiCounty.pdf.   

The best way to avoid getting infected is to get vaccinated.  The vaccines are safe, effective, and free.  Here are the best sources to contact to make an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccines:

• YRMC: https://www.yrmc.org/suppo.../covid-19/covid-19-vaccinations

• Spectrum Healthcare:  https://www.spectrumhealthcare-group.com/vaccine/ - 877-634-7333. Their Anywhere Care team can go to anyone's home and vaccinate them. You do not need to pre-register. Just call their dedicated line to schedule: 1-844-whereUr. (1-844-943-8273)

• Yavapai Community Health Services - 928-771-3122 for appointments, Phone Bank 442-5103. 

Original source can be found here.