Improvement seen in most Nevada COVID-19 metrics over weekend

Nevada added 2,799 new COVID-19 cases and 46 deaths over the preceding three days as most major state metrics showed new signs of improvement, according to state data posted Monday.

Data for Friday through Sunday, posted by the Department of Health and Human Services on the state’s coronavirus website, increased cumulative totals to 389,358 cases and 6,479 deaths from the disease.

The number of new cases was slightly below the 14-day moving average of 946 per day when averaged over three days. The total also was improved from a week ago, when the state reported 3,066 new cases over three days — the highest figure since the state stopped weekend reporting in mid-April.

The two-week moving average itself, however, was up by 20 cases per day above the 926 per day reported on Friday.

Fatalities were just over 15 per day when averaged over the three days, slightly above the two-week moving average of deaths, which stood at 13, one below the 14 reported on Friday.

While both metrics continue to fluctuate in daily reports, state data shows the two-week average of new COVID-19 cases has declined by more than 15 percent since hitting a recent high of 1,123 per day on Aug. 17.

The two-week average of deaths attributed to the disease has declined even more sharply, dropping more than 31 percent since reaching its recent peak of 19 per day on Aug. 22, according to the state data.

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State and county public health agencies frequently redistribute the daily data after it is reported to better reflect the onset of symptoms or date of death, which is why the moving-average trend lines frequently differ from daily reports and are considered better indicators of the direction of the outbreak.

Another caveat is that the state data reported after a weekend can be skewed because some local public health agencies don’t report COVID data over the weekend, which can lead to inflated daily figures early in the week as those delayed reports are received.

Data on hospitalizations of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases in Nevada showed 1,185 such patients, 25 below the 1,210 reported on Friday. Hospitalizations also have dipped slightly in recent weeks — especially in Southern Nevada — from the recent high of 1,294 reported on Aug. 12.

The state test positivity rate, meanwhile, which has been falling in recent weeks, remained unchanged from Friday’s report at 12.7 percent.

The rate, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, has been declining steadily from its recent peak of 16.4 percent on Aug. 13 but remains well above the World Health Organization’s target of 5 percent to stop the spread of the disease.

Vaccination numbers reported Monday remained near the levels seen in recent weeks, with an average of 7,329 doses administered per day from Friday through Sunday. State data now shows that 51.66 percent of eligible Nevadans 12 and older have been fully vaccinated.

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The Southern Nevada Health District, meanwhile, reported 1,778 new cases of COVID-19 and 38 deaths in Clark County from Friday through Sunday.

That pushed county totals to 303,487 COVID-19 cases and 5,198 deaths.

The county’s test positivity rate dropped sharply over the period, from the 12.7 percent reported on Friday to 11.5 percent, according to state data. That represents a decline of more than 32 percent from its recent high of 17 percent on Aug. 8.

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