By Laura Gómez and Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror
The Arizona Department of Health Services doesn’t know how many Arizonans have been hospitalized for COVID-19, despite a mandate from the governor requiring all hospitals to report such information.
“Due to the evolving nature of the response, ADHS has limited statewide data on hospitalization and outcome status for individuals with COVID-19,” agency spokeswoman Holly Poynter told Arizona Mirror in a March 27 email.
Poynter was responding to a Mirror request for ADHS data on COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized, in an intensive care unit and on ventilators.
According to ProPublica, 17 states are regularly reporting this information publicly. Arizona is not among them.