12 new COVID-19 deaths, 65 new cases reported in Clark County

A dozen deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported Wednesday for Clark County along with 65 additional cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to data posted by the Southern Nevada Health District.

The fatalities increased the county death toll to 238 and pushed the case total to 4,473.

The health district estimated Wednesday that 3,659 — or 81.80 percent — of the patients have recovered. Those figures were both considerably higher than the 3,056 and 69.33 percent reported Tuesday, however, and district officials said Wednesday that they are double-checking to determine the reason for the jump.

“Our epidemiologists are looking into this to determine what this may be a function of,” Michael Johnson, director of the district’s community health division, said at a news briefing. “It’s a big increase and we of course want to know what we can attribute it to.”

The jump in deaths was the biggest for the county in more than a week, matching the 12 new fatalities reported on April 28.

In contrast, the increase in cases was well below the daily average of nearly 86 new cases.

Despite the overnight increase in fatalities, Johnson said at the briefing that district experts are “beginning to see a decline in some of the indicators we’re looking at.”

Vit Kraushaar, medical investigator for the district, indicated that those metrics include not just new cases, but hospitalizations, deaths, the proportion of those tested who are positive and the proportion of total tests that are positive.

He also said the district is “looking at the trend based on symptom onset data … assuming that people who are infected will go on to show symptoms within a certain period.”

Earlier, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services reported 69 new COVID-19 cases — also below the daily average of over 110 cases over the last week — and 10 new deaths.

The new cases raised the state total to 5,663 cases, though reports from local public health agencies and counties placed the total at 5,743. The fatalities raised the state death toll to 286.

The case figure was derived from tests on 49,275 people, resulting in an infection rate of 11.49 percent. Though likely elevated because of an easing shortage of COVID-19 testing supplies, that rate has been steadily declining in recent weeks as more people with mild to moderate symptoms of the disease caused by the new coronavirus apparently are being found to have other illnesses.

In other developments Wednesday:

■ The Regional Information Center in Washoe County reported eight new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death. The update hiked the number of cases in the county to 1,022, 431 of whom have recovered. The fatality, that of a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions, raised the county death toll to 37.

■ Nye County reported three new cases of COVID-19, one in Pahrump and two others in Amargosa Valley. The county’s case total is now 42, with 14 of those listed as recovered.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Michael Scott Davidson contributed to this report.