Clark County back in ‘high’ COVID-19 transmission tier, but most metrics decline

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Clark County in the “high” COVID-19 transmission rate on Tuesday, just a week after the county had finally dropped out of the highest tier for the first time in months.

The county jumped back up because its case rate per 100,000 people stood at 217.32 on Tuesday afternoon, more than double its rate at the same time last week. That coincided with another drop in the seven-day test positivity rate, the other metric used by the CDC to designate a county’s risk transmission level. It wasn’t clear why those numbers continued to head in opposite directions.

For a county to hit the next tier, the “substantial” rate of transmission, it must record a seven-day average case rate under 100 per 100,000 residents and a seven-day test positivity rate below 10 percent. The state’s mask mandate had been tied to those metrics before it was rescinded Feb. 10.

Clark County last dropped into the “substantial” tier Nov. 1, when it appeared to be on the right track to exiting the mask mandate. But the omicron variant soon spread throughout the state and county, and numbers skyrocketed until mid-January, when the surge started dissipating sharply.

Nearly all of Nevada was in the “high” transmission tier Tuesday, with the exception of Lincoln County, which stood in the “moderate” tier, and Storey County, which stood in the “substantial” tier.

Still, most of Clark County’s metrics continued to show declines Tuesday. The Southern Nevada Health District reported 148 new cases and 10 deaths over the preceding day, pushing cumulative totals to 488,194 cases and 7,489 deaths.

The county’s 14-day average of daily new cases dropped again, from 168 on Monday to 153. The 14-day moving average of daily deaths held steady at five.

There was also improvement in other long-term metrics. The county’s 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested who are found to be infected with COVID-19, dropped by 0.3 percentage point to 8.1 percent.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 dropped from 320 on Monday to 318.

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.

Meanwhile, the state reported 248 new cases and 12 deaths over the preceding day, bringing totals posted by Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services to 645,615 cases and 9,716 deaths.

The 14-day moving average of new cases fell from 251 on Monday to 225, while the 14-day average of daily fatalities held at six.

Of the state’s other closely watched metrics, the 14-day test positivity rate dropped 0.4 percentage point to 9.1 percent, while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-10 dropped by 16 to 379.

As of Tuesday, state data showed that 56.59 percent of Nevadans 5 and older were fully vaccinated, compared with 55.96 in Clark County.

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