Brutal benchmark: Arizona passes 1 million COVID-19 cases

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona surpassed 1 million COVID-19 cases Friday, becoming the 13th state to reach the grim milestone while contending with yet another major spike in infections.

The benchmark is the latest in a tumultuous year and a half where Arizona went from being touted as a pandemic success story to being “the hot spot of the world” and then being a model again when vaccinations became available. Now, the state, like the rest of the country, is coping with a surge — mostly of the unvaccinated — and ongoing conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates.

It ranks 13th nationwide in the number of cases per 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker.

COVID-19 came early to Arizona.

In January 2020, a person with ties to Arizona State University got sick after traveling to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and became one of the first five confirmed cases in the United States. The person isolated at home and recovered.

However, within two months, more than 100 cases had been reported across most counties and the Navajo Nation.

Arizona’s first death was reported on March 20, 2020, a man in his 50s in Maricopa County, followed by a second two days later.

On March 30, 2020, Gov. Doug Ducey issued a month-long stay-at-home order, allowing people to only go out for food, medicine and other “essential activities.” Non-essential businesses such as the Rebel Lounge, a Phoenix music club, basically had to shut down.

The club’s owner, Stephen Chilton, went about a year without staging any performances and was forced to furlough most of his staff. He canceled and rebooked shows as many as six times, all without generating any revenue.

Chilton opened his doors again in October, this time operating as a coffee...