Clark County COVID-19 cases continue decline

The Southern Nevada Health District on Monday reported 384 new COVID-19 cases and 18 deaths over the weekend.

The figures push the total to 489,395 new cases and a total of 7,570 deaths in Clark County since the onset of the pandemic nearly two years ago.

Key metrics used to measure the impact of the virus — new cases, positivity rate, hospitalizations and the 14-day average of deaths — continue to show improvement, even after Gov. Steve Sisolak dropped the state’s mask mandate about a month ago.

The numbers have decreased substantially since the surge of the more transmissible omicron variant peaked in mid-January.

The two-week average of new cases dropped from 168 a week ago to 113 reported Monday, Nevada’s COVID dashboard shows.

By the end of Sunday, 245 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 were hospitalized in Clark County, with 57 patients occupying intensive care unite beds, and 30 requiring ventilators, state data shows. The figure was a decrease from 320 hospitalizations reported a week ago.

The 14-day test positivity rate, which measures the percentage of people tested who are found to be infected with the coronavirus, stood at 5.9 percent Monday, down from 8.4 percent a week ago.

The two-week moving average of daily deaths held at four Monday, a decrease from a daily average of five reported a week ago.

While COVID-19 appears to be subsiding and restrictions have been lifted, health officials maintain that vaccination continues to be the best protection against serious illness or death. So far, the vaccination regimen has been effective with the all of the emerging variants.

As of Friday, 75.15 percent of eligible Clark County residents — ages 5 and above — had initiated vaccination, while 60.11 percent had received at least two jabs. A total of 85.9 percent of the adult population had received one vaccine, while 69.61 percent was fully vaccinated, Health District data shows.

The Health District releases a weekly report of so-called breakthrough cases of people infected with COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

Thursdays report showed a total of 68,232 breakthrough cases with 1,234 hospitalizations and 483 deaths.

Officials have said that breakthrough COVID-19 cases are to be expected, but that the shots significantly decrease deadly outcomes.

For example, the county death rate among the fully vaccinated was 38 per 100,000 residents compared to 680 per 100,000 among the unvaccinated, according to the report. People 65 years old and older account for 84 percent of the fatalities.

The breakthrough cases are growing as a percentage total of cases, likely due to the increasing number of vaccinated individuals and the weakening efficacy of the shots.

Among those 12 years and older who tested positive for COVID-19 in February, 42.63 percent were fully vaccinated.

Weekend Nevada numbers could not be measured because the COVID dashboard was not updated Friday.

But statewide, there have been 647,797 COVID-19 infections and 9,820 deaths since March 2020.

The two-week average of daily new cases in Nevada was 160 and the positivity rate was 6.4 percent.

As of Sunday night, there were 286 Nevada hospital beds with patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, with 64 requiring intensive care, and 31 of them using ventilators, state data shows.

A week before, new daily cases averaged 251 and the positivity rate was 9.5 percent, and there were 395 people people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19.

The state reported 116 deaths in a one-week period.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.