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Clark County saw a significant drop in several major COVID-19 parameters on Tuesday, reporting 458 new cases of coronavirus and 24 deaths in the previous day.
That brought the totals for the county to 322,524 cases and 5,701 deaths, according to data released by the Southern Nevada Health District.
The daily total remained above the two-week moving average of 383 per day, which was itself down from 399 on Monday.
The deaths were four times the two-week moving average, which held steady at six per day.
The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county has increased from 609 to 608.
The 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who were found to be infected, fell 0.2 percentage points to 6.7%.
The improved measures mean the county is making progress towards phasing out the state mask mandate for crowded interior areas, although it still has some way to go.
Positivity rate now “moderate”
The 14-day average positivity rate translates to 7.4% using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s preferred seven-day average, which places the county in the “moderate” transmission category in the classification system. risks of the federal agency.
But it must remain low and be accompanied by a corresponding drop in the rate of new COVID-19 cases in the county for the county to quit the mask tenure of Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. To do this, a county must record consecutive weeks with a positivity rate of 8.0% or less and less than 50 new cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population. The latter number stood at 143.69 cases per 100,000 on Sunday, the last time the figure was updated on the CDC’s website.
That number was almost unchanged from the previous report a week earlier.
Data Guide: Impact of COVID-19 on Nevada
State officials will update Nevada’s mask guidelines Tuesday afternoon, but based on CDC data, all counties will remain under mask warrant for at least a week. Most of the state remains in the “high” transmission level.
The state, meanwhile, had only reported 126 new COVID-19 cases and 33 deaths in the previous day. It was not clear why the state’s figure for new cases was lower than Clark County’s.
That brought the state’s total to 424,326 cases and 7,221 deaths, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Following Clark County’s lead, the state’s 14-day moving average of new cases also declined, falling to 649 per day from 702 on Monday. The two-week average of deaths, however, fell from 10 to 11 per day.
State and county health agencies often redistribute daily data after it is reported to better reflect the date of death or onset of symptoms, which is why moving average trend lines often differ from daily reports and are considered to be better indicators of the direction of the epidemic.
The state’s two-week test positivity rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 8.6%.
The rate fell from its recent high of 16.4% on August 13, according to state data.
Hospitalizations are also declining statewide
The state also reported that 849 people in Nevada have been hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 12 fewer than Monday. This figure has been declining slowly but steadily since the end of August.
State health officials announced on Monday that Nevada will begin posting results of rapid antigen tests on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. This initially added around 9,500 “probable” cases to the dashboard on Monday, although the number of “confirmed” cases, which the Review-Journal continues to track, was not affected. It is not known if this affected Tuesday’s report.
Rapid antigen tests can return results in about 15 minutes, but are considered less accurate than traditional molecular tests.
According to Tuesday’s report, 54.35% of Nevadans aged 12 and older had been fully immunized. The rate was 53.57 percent in Clark County, according to state data. That number fell on Monday because the state updated its immunization information to remove doses given to out-of-state residents and make other adjustments.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Jonah Dylan at [email protected]. To follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.
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