Nevada adds 3K-plus coronavirus cases, 35 deaths over the weekend

Nevada on Monday reported more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases and 35 deaths over the previous three days — the highest tolls since it stopped reporting numbers over the weekend in mid-April.

The deaths, which raised the state’s total to 6,040, were above the two-week moving average, which dropped from nine to eight.

Data posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services on the state’s coronavirus website showed 3,010 new coronavirus cases reported for Friday through Sunday. The previous high after a weekend was the 2,531 cases reported a week earlier.

That pushed the state’s case total to 366,584 and increased the two-week moving average of new cases to 981 per day, up 45 from Friday.

The average has been climbing since it reached a recent low of 132 on June 5, with much of that growth occurring in Clark County.

The state’s two-week positivity rate, meanwhile, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, increased by 0.5 percentage point to 16.3 percent, according to state data.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The rate has now risen 13 percentage points in two months after reaching a recent low of 3.3 percent on June 9 and is now at its highest level since Feb. 2.

State data showed that 1,263 people were hospitalized with either confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the state, an increase of 33 from the last report on Friday. That number also has been steadily increasing, though hospitals have said they’re not dealing with the same capacity issues that they encountered during the state’s third wave last winter.

Nevada no longer reports numbers over the weekend, and public health officials have said that reporting on Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays can be inflated as a result of the delayed compilation of local reports.

State and county health agencies also often redistribute the daily data after it is reported to better reflect the date of death or a test 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.

The 14-day moving average of vaccine doses administered dropped slightly to 6,653 per day, but that number is still significantly higher than the recent low average of 4,833 doses per day reported on July 15.

In Clark County, data from the Southern Nevada Health District showed that 59.56 percent of the population 12 and older had initiated vaccination. That’s still short of the 60 percent threshold that the county originally set as a goal for its full reopening on June 1.

The state has also been performing more COVID-19 tests, with that number rising almost 2,000 per day from this time last month.

Meanwhile, the health district also reported 2,443 new coronavirus cases in Clark County for Friday through Sunday, bringing the local cumulative case total to 288,381. It also reported 34 of the state’s deaths, bringing the toll in the county to 4,828.

The county’s 14-day positivity rate climbed to 17.1 percent.

County numbers are reflected in the state totals.

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