Clark County reports 133 new COVID-19 cases, no new deaths

Clark County recorded 133 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths over the preceding day, according to data posted Thursday.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported the new cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus on its dedicated web page, bringing the total for the county to 7,056. The heath district estimates that 5,545 of those patients have recovered.

The death toll in the county remained unchanged at 355, according to the district.

The reported number of new cases was above the daily average of just under 91 reported over the preceding week.

The hospitalization rate among those diagnosed with the disease, considered a better indicator of the trend of the outbreak in the county, continued to decline, dipping to 18.31 percent, excluding deaths, as of Thursday’s report. The rate has been trending lower since peaking at 31.49 percent on April 10.

Experts with the health district revise the data after cases are initially announced, moving cases to the date when a patient first started experiencing symptoms in an effort to better capture the trajectory of the disease in the county. As a result, the number of cases announced daily generally don’t match the district’s revised data.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Health and Human Services reported 155 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths over the preceding day.

The cases brought the total in Nevada to 9,090, while the death toll remained at 429.

The number of new cases was above the daily average of nearly 117 reported over the preceding week.

The infection rate, the number of confirmed cases divided by the number of people tested, continued its recent downward trend, hitting 5.64 percent after peaking at 12.66 percent on April 23. Like the hospitalization rate for the county, the infection rate is seen as a more reliable indicator of the direction of the outbreak in the state than the number of new cases or deaths, which fluctuate widely from day to day.

The decline in the state infection rate has been driven by the increased availability of testing for the coronavirus after a severe shortage of supplies in the early weeks of the outbreak. With the recent surge in testing — averaging more than 4,800 a day over the last week — the state has now tested 161,304 people, or a little more than 5 percent of its estimated population of 3.08 million.

In other developments:

— Thursday marked the first day Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center has had zero inpatients with confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to a hospital news release.

A previous version of this story mischaracterized the new cases reported for Clark County.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.