Nevada adds 801 new coronavirus cases, 9 deaths over 3-day period

Nevada on Monday reported 801 new coronavirus cases and nine deaths over the three preceding days.

The state Department of Health and Human Services posted the updated data covering Friday through Sunday on the state’s coronavirus website. It was the third weekend that the state has posted three days’ worth of data on Monday after ceasing to collect COVID-19 metrics.

Public health officials have said that the reports on Monday and possibly Tuesday will be inflated as a result of the delayed reporting.

A daily breakdown of new cases indicated that they remained far above the two-week moving average of daily cases throughout the weekend. The moving average, meanwhile, declined from 285 on Friday to 262 per day in Monday’s report.

The new report pushed the state’s case total to 316,239.

Additional deaths from COVID-19, however, matched the two-week moving average of three deaths per day when spread over three days. The latest fatalities brought the state’s death toll to 5,464, while the two-week moving average dropped from four to three.

The state’s two-week positivity rate, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, held steady at 5.7 percent, according to state data.

The data also showed 331 people with either confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 were hospitalized in the state, a slight increase from the last report on Friday.

The numbers were the first reported after Clark County increased to 80 percent capacity limit on Saturday and changed the social distancing protocols from six feet to three feet. State officials have said they expect to see cases increase as restrictions are relaxed.

State and county health agencies often redistribute the 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 Southern Nevada Health District reported 705 new cases for the same period, bringing the local cumulative case total to 244,647. Clark County reported all nine of the state’s deaths, bringing the county death toll to 4,309.

The 14-day positivity rate in the county increased to 5.7 percent Monday, 0.1 percentage point higher than Friday.

County numbers are reflected in the statewide totals.

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