Health experts fear that the COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S. state of Arizona could be intensified with winter approaching, as the state last week had a 138-percent increase in the seven-day average of daily new deaths per 100,000 people, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

"It's bad," Will Humble, executive director of Arizona's Public Health Association, was quoted as saying.

He blamed factors, including the Delta variant, a lack of public health restrictions and pockets of vaccines resistance, for the recent increase in Arizona's COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Some public experts also said cases rose again in July after Governor Doug Ducey lifted related restrictions in March and did little to reduce the risks of a reopening.

The Post said Ducey has been at odds with the federal government on many fronts, opposing mandatory masks in local schools and vaccinations in the workplace.

The U.S. Labor Department has warned the state about its continued failure to adopt a Biden administration emergency public health directive. However, Ducey called it "nothing short of a political stunt and desperate power grab."

Arizona is not the only place in the U.S. where the public health situation is concerning. Over the past seven days, the number of daily deaths has increased by 267 percent in Alaska, 143 percent in Montana and 100 percent in Rhode Island, according to a Washington Post analysis.