New COVID-19 cases jump sharply in Clark County and Nevada

Clark County and Nevada both reported unusually high numbers of new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, suggesting the surge of the disease that began last month is gaining momentum.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported 974 new cases and 15 deaths in Clark County during the preceding day, while the state added 1,139 cases and 28 deaths.

Both figures were likely inflated by delayed reporting following the weekend, when some agencies don’t submit new cases or deaths to the state. But key metrics for the disease have been climbing in the county since early November and public health officials have said the surge is expected to continue to rise as the holiday season reaches its peak, with more people traveling and gathering.

The more-contagious omicron variant is adding to the concerns, as it shows signs of spreading in Nevada just a week after the first case was confirmed in Clark County.

Tuesday’s updates pushed totals posted by the Southern Nevada Health District to 355,021 cases and 6,404 deaths.

New cases in Clark County were more than double the two-week moving average, which nonetheless decreased by 11 to 393 per day. Fatalities were triple the two-week moving average of five deaths per day, which was unchanged from Monday’s update.

Positivity rate hits 8.1 percent

The county’s test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested for the disease who are found to be infected, increased by 0.1 percentage point to 8.1 percent, up from its recent low of 5.8 percent in early November.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county was unchanged at 613, with 150 of those patients in intensive care units, according to data from the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The recent surge has pushed the county further away from exiting Gov. Steve Sisolak’s face mask mandate.

While the county tracks most of its COVID-19 metrics using a 14-day moving average, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s transmission risk classification system uses a seven-day average.

As of Tuesday, it showed a rate of 168.57 new cases per 100,000 population over the previous week. That is considered a “high” risk of transmission under the CDC system.

The second key COVID-19 metric used as a gauge for when a county can exit the mask mandate is the test positivity rate.

Using the CDC’s seven-day average, the rate stood at 11.07 percent, returning the county in the “high” risk of transmission category for that metric.

For a county to exit the state mask mandate for crowded indoor public spaces, it must record back-to-back weeks with a seven-day average case rate under 50 per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate below 8 percent — both considered as posing a “moderate” or “low” risk of transmission by the CDC.

3 counties out of mask mandate

Clark County’s numbers are rising as other counties in the state are headed in the other direction. Esmeralda County has been in the “low” or “moderate” transmission tier for a month and does not have a mask mandate, while Storey County and White Pine County have been there for two weeks and will have their mask mandates lifted on Friday.

Eureka County, Lander County and Lincoln County will not be required to mask up if they go another week in the “low” or “moderate” tier.

All other counties remain in the “high” tier except for Humboldt County, which is in the “substantial” tier.

The state, meanwhile, reported 1,139 new COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths during the preceding day. That brought Nevada totals posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services to 471,739 cases and 8,339 deaths.

Nevada’s 14-day moving average of new cases decreased to 499 per day from 514 on Tuesday. The two-week average for fatalities held steady at seven per day.

Of the state’s other closely watched metrics, the two-week test positivity rate dropped held steady at 7.6 percent, while the number of people in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases rose to 700, 33 more than on Monday. That number has been on the rise for weeks.

A new state report dated on Sunday showed 54 new breakthrough cases — or confirmed COVID-19 cases in people who are considered fully vaccinated — over the preceding week. That was about average for the past month.

Following CDC guidance, the state only reports breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death, meaning most cases go unreported. The new report also showed 12 breakthrough deaths over the preceding week.

According to the report, 61 percent of the breakthrough cases and 72 percent of the deaths came in Nevadans over the age of 70.

As of Tuesday’s report, state data show that 53.93 percent of Nevadans 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, compared with 53.21 percent in Clark County. That number fluctuates widely throughout the state.

Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.