The Arizona Department of Health Services added another 69 COVID-19-related deaths to the dashboard Saturday, as the pace of virus deaths has nearly doubled over the past two weeks.

The department also confirmed 2,916 additional COVID-19 cases.

The state’s seven-day rolling average of daily deaths rose from just under 27 on Sept. 9 to just over 51 on Thursday. 

The amount of average daily cases fell to just under 2,500 in the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Deaths are considered a trailing metric in the pandemic, with increases usually following spikes in cases and hospitalizations.

Almost 51% of Arizonans are fully vaccinated, lagging behind the national rate by about 5 percentage points.