“We’ve already responded with 62 medical personnel arrived this week in Tucson, but the governor conveyed to us an additional request of another 500 personnel and I’ve instructed the acting Secretary of Homeland Security to move out immediately on providing the additional nurses and doctors and technical personnel.”

Pence said the federal government would be “moving out on that very quickly.”

On the day of Pence’s visit to the state, Arizona reported a record number of new cases in a single day (4,878) as well as a new record for deaths from COVID-19 in a 24-hour period (88).

While Arizona has, like other states across the country, increased testing in recent weeks, the percentage of positive results from those tests has been especially worrisome. On Wednesday, the state said that 28.3 percent of residents tested over the past 24-hours were positive for the disease caused by coronavirus, the worst of any state in the nation.