LETTER: Nevada COVID number on the rise

The Saturday Review-Journal COVID-19 article headlining an increase in cases attributed the increase to a delay of test result reporting. Of more interest is not the 772 cases reported, but that the weekly daily average of 490 cases is much higher than the 264 daily cases in mid-September. More significant is that the daily rate over the past several weeks has increased from 0.4 percent to 0.6 percent. These small numbers may appear insignificant; however, they equate to annual rates of 1.46 percent and 2.19 percent. Seldom is a 0.7 percent difference in annual compound rate considered insignificant.

The annual rate in early July exceeded 10 percent. Ignoring guidelines could cause this to happen again and result in another major shutdown.