Nevada reports 840 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths over 3 days

Nevada reported more than 800 new coronavirus cases on Monday — a figure that covered three days because the state has stopped reporting key COVID-19 metrics over the weekend.

The Department of Health and Human Services added 840 cases and 11 deaths from Friday through Sunday on the state coronavirus website.

New cases were far higher than the two-week moving average of new cases, which increased to 271 per day. The new report pushed the state’s case total to 313,680.

The new deaths from COVID-19 over the weekend were also well above the two-week moving average of three deaths per day when spread over three days. The latest fatalities brought the state’s death toll to 5,433.

The state’s two-week positivity rate continued its recent fall, decreasing o.1 percentage point to 5.7 percent from the 5.8 percent reported Friday, according to state data.

The data also showed 324 people with either confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 were hospitalized in the state.

Major COVID-19 metrics tracked by the state began to fall in late December and early January, reaching low points in mid-to-late March. Since then, the measurements have been drifting higher, although at a much slower rate than seen during previous spikes of the disease.

The latest rise began shortly after Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decided to allow many businesses move from 35 percent occupancy to 50 percent on March 15, and state public health officials have said that the increases in new COVID-19 cases and other gauges since then were expected as a result of the loosening of the mitigation measures.

With Clark County now planning to move to 80 percent capacity on May 1, and reducing its social distancing threshold will move from 6 feet to 3 feet, the officials say they expect to see further increases, particularly in new cases and positivity rate.

“As we reduce mitigation measures and go toward more reopenings, we certainly do expect an increase in cases and an increase in spread,” the state’s COVID-19 response director, Caleb Cage, said at a news briefing Monday. “But we don’t really know exactly what that looks like.”

Meanwhile, the Southern Nevada Health District reported 710 new cases for the same period, bringing the local cumulative case total to 242,524. Clark County also reported 10 deaths, bringing the county death toll to 4,271.

The 14-day positivity rate in the county stood at 5.5 percent Monday, unchanged from Friday.

County numbers are included in statewide totals.

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