PHOENIX (AP) — Hospital executives and public health authorities across Arizona pleaded Tuesday for people to get vaccinated and do everything possible to avoid spreading the coronavirus as they gird for another surge in cases that threatens once again to overwhelm the state’s health care system.

The numbers of coronavirus infections and hospital stays are trending up, as they did this time last year as families gathered for the holidays, culminating in a crushing demand at hospitals.

“Our messaging today is to ask for assistance. We need less COVID patients,” Dr. Marjorie Bessel, the chief medical officer at Banner Health, said during a news conference with the top doctors from the state’s major health care systems. ...

The hospital overload is already crippling the Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, which this week closed its operating room to reassign those nurses to care for inpatient cases. That meant canceling 17 colonoscopies on Tuesday, said Dr. Edward Miller, chief medical officer at the 13-bed hospital. ...