COVID-19 will be Nevada’s top killer in December, state official says

COVID-19 will be the No. 1 killer in Nevada in December, a state official said Tuesday as the death toll from the disease surpassed 3,000.

“We expect (COVID-19) to be the leading cause of death for the month,” biostatistician Kyra Morgan told the state COVID-19 task force. That means it would claim the lives of more Nevadans than the perennial leading killers heart disease and cancer.

She addressed the panel shortly after the state Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,747 new cases of COVID-19 and 46 deaths over the preceding day.

The fatalities brought the state total for December to a record 875. The previous high mark of the pandemic was the 475 deaths reported in August.

New cases were more than double the 868 reported Monday by the state and higher than the 14-day rolling average of 1,699.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The state positivity rate, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested who are confirmed to have the disease caused by the new coronavirus, remained unchanged from the previous day at 19.9 percent.

Hospitalizations of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients climbed by 30 over the preceding day to 1,929 on Tuesday, Nevada Hospital Association data shows.

New COVID-19 cases had been trending lower in Nevada for nearly three weeks, but state officials say that is likely due to fewer people getting tested around the Christmas holiday, resulting in fewer new diagnoses.

Morgan, the state biostatistician, compared the apparent good news to an “artificial decline” seen during the Thanksgiving weekend.

“We don’t want people to get too excited about the good news because that could turn in the near future,” she told the task force. “We’ll probably see that uptick (in new cases) come back in the next week or so.”

Hospitalizations from the disease also remain a concern.

While hundreds of hospital beds remain empty across the state, some staff members say they and their colleagues are being overworked and can’t handle more cases.

Clark County Fire Chief John Steinbeck told the task force that plans to open alternate care sites with additional hospital beds, such as the Las Vegas Convention Center, could not be implemented with the county’s current staffing levels.

“The number one issue for our hospitals is still a staffing issue, and that issue doesn’t change if we open another facility,” he said.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.