COVID-19 hospitalizations in county fall to lowest level since April
Updated September 7, 2022 - 5:12 pm
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Clark County have fallen to 100 — their lowest point since April — from a high this year of 1,700 in January, according to state data released Wednesday.
Confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped over the past week from 138 in the county. Statewide, they fell from 183 to 143, according to new data from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
“COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to decline in Nevada,” the Nevada Hospital Association said. However, modest increases have been seen in Washoe County and Carson City, the trade association said.
Both in Clark County and statewide, cases also declined. The 14-day average for confirmed daily new cases fell in the county to 137 from 187. Statewide, cases dropped to 197 from 246.
The 14-day average for daily deaths, both statewide and in the county, remained at one.
Statewide, Nevada continues to have some of the lowest levels of COVID-19 in the country, a determination based on hospitalizations and case numbers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of Nevada’s counties except for one – White Pine – are experiencing low community levels. White Pine is experiencing a medium level.
Nationwide, just 32 percent of counties are experiencing low levels, while 42 percent have medium levels and 26 percent have high.
Throughout the pandemic, waves of illness – including this summer’s wave triggered by omicron variants – have hit communities at different times.
“The wave hit us first,” said Brian Labus, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UNLV’s School of Public Health. “And it passed us first. So right now we are, just timeline-wise, a few weeks ahead of the rest of the country.”
He and other public health authorities caution that the emergence of a new variant, as well as waning immunity against the coronavirus, could trigger another wave of the disease.
Over the course of the pandemic, there have been 592,562 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county and 778,352 statewide. There have been 8,930 COVID-19 deaths in the county and 11,417 in the state.
About 55 percent of the population of the county and of the state is vaccinated against COVID-19.
Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.
New booster shots
The reformulated COVID-19 booster shots that target not only the original virus strain but also the currently circulating omicron subvariants are now available at Southern Nevada Health District clinics, district representative Jennifer Sizemore said. The new boosters also are available at some pharmacy locations. CVS Pharmacy locations are receiving the bivalent booster on a rolling basis over the next few weeks, a representative said.
— Mary Hynes