Clark County COVID-19 metrics continue recent trends

Clark County on Thursday reported 926 new coronavirus cases and 20 deaths, as the case rate dropped but deaths continued to rise.

The update pushed totals posted by the Southern Nevada Health District to 478,487 cases and 6,993 deaths.

New cases were below the two-week moving average of 1,464, which decreased from 1,673 on Wednesday. That number has been dropping at a steady rate for weeks now, after the state hit the peak of the current omicron-driven surge a few weeks ago.

Deaths were twice the two-week moving average, which held steady at 10. Public health officials have long said that hospitalization and death numbers usually follow test positivity rate and daily case numbers as a wave peaks and then goes in the other direction, so the current trends aren’t surprising.

Still, it means that hospitalizations are still at a concerning level throughout the state. The Nevada Hospital Association acknowledged Wednesday that numbers were starting to recede but noted that staffing was still a concern.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county decreased by 25 to 1,292, representing another decline.

The county’s 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested who are found to be infected with COVID-19, decreased by half a percentage point to 29.1 percent. That’s still a very high number, but well below the recent peak.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

Info from the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory showed that omicron now accounts for 100 percent of COVID-19 cases in the state.

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 the moving-average trend lines frequently differ from daily reports and are considered better indicators of the direction of the outbreak.

And there were signs from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that the situation was improving at a rapid rate. Clark County’s seven-day case rate per 100,000 people was 691.49 on Thursday, just a few weeks after it had skyrocketed to over 2,000. That number had briefly dipped below 100 in November.

The state, meanwhile, reported 1,756 new coronavirus cases and 34 deaths, bringing totals posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services to 629,411 cases and 9,084 deaths.

New cases were below the two-week moving average, which dropped significantly. The average stood at 2,210 on Thursday, well below the 2,497 reported on Wednesday. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities increased from 13 to 14.

The Silver State’s 14-day test positivity rate increased by one percentage point to 30.2 percent, while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 decreased by 43 to 1,540.

State data showed that as of Thursday, 55.91 percent of Nevadans 5 and older are fully vaccinated, compared with 55.29 percent in Clark County.

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