Mesa Fire Department Capt. Jeff Stieber, right, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 at the Arizona Department of Health Services State Laboratory from nurse Machrina Leach, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, in Phoenix. The Pfizer vaccine was almost 95 percent effective at preventing patients from contracting COVID-19 and caused no major side effects in a trial of nearly 44,000 people. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A girl wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus walks past a display of garments at a market in Bengaluru, India, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. India will kick off the coronavirus vaccination drive on Jan. 16 to stem the pandemic in the world’s second-most populous country. A Health Ministry statement says that priority will be given to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers, estimated around 30 million. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
A woman wearing a face mask to help protect herself from the coronavirus looks from a fogged bus window in Ivano-Frankivsk, Western Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. The country of 42 million is recording about 9,000 new COVID-19 infections a day; more than 19,500 people have died. Ukraine imposes a wide-ranging lockdown beginning Friday, closing schools and entertainment venues and restaurant table service through Jan. 25. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Chinese paramilitary police wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus patrol along a street in Beijing, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. COVID vaccine shots will be free in China, where more than 9 million doses have been give to date, health officials in Beijing said Saturday. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
A man wearing a face mask to protect against coronavirus runs past a wall painted with portrait of the former ultra-nationalist Serb World War II leader Gen. Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. Balkan nations have struggled to get access to COVID-19 vaccines from multiple companies and programs, but most of the states on Europe’s southeastern periphery are still waiting for their first vaccines to arrive, with no firm timeline for the start of their national inoculation drives. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus take usually crowded escalators at a shopping arcade in Tokyo Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021. The Japanese capital confirmed more than 2200 new coronavirus cases on Saturday. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency last Thursday for Tokyo and three other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
PHOENIX — Arizona, which is a COVID-19 hot spot in the United States, has now recorded more than 10,000 deaths and 600,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
The Department of Health Services reported 11,094 new cases and 98 deaths on Saturday, the second straight day that Arizona’s new confirmed cases exceeded 11,000.
The daily numbers brought Arizona’s total confirmed cases to 607,345 and the state’s death toll in the pandemic to 10,036.
Arizona and Rhode Island are tied for the country’s highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate, with 1 in every 109 people diagnosed with the disease between Jan. 1 and Friday.
There were 4,920 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds on Friday.