Nevada adds more than 900 new COVID-19 cases for 4th time this week

Nevada on Thursday reported 942 new coronavirus cases and eight additional deaths over the preceding day, according to state data.

Updated figures posted by the Department of Health and Human Services on the state’s coronavirus website pushed COVID-19 totals in the state to 348,040 cases and 5,797 fatalities.

New cases remained higher than the moving 14-day average of daily reported cases, which increased from 675 to 692. The number of new cases has been rising steadily since hitting a recent low of 132 average cases per day on June 5, according to state data.

The 14-day average of daily reported deaths remained at four on Thursday, one day after doubling when 28 fatalities were recorded due to delayed reporting.

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.

The rise in new cases has been accompanied by increases in hospitalizations and the state’s COVID-19 test positivity rate. The death rate had remained relatively flat over the period prior to Wednesday’s inflated report.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The state’s two-week test positivity rate, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, rose by 0.1 percentage points on Thursday, reaching 12.7 percent. It was the 32nd day in a row that the rate has increased, a period that has seen the metric nearly quadruple since hitting its recent low of 3.3 percent on June 10, state data show.

A report issued by the White House’s COVID-19 team on Monday listed Nevada as having the highest seven-day test positivity rate in the nation, at 14.7 percent.

Nevada also had the fifth-highest number of cases per 100,000 people over the previous seven days, behind Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas and Missouri, it said.

There were 971 people in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, which is 23 fewer than the day prior, according to state data.

Hospitalization totals can fluctuate by day but have been trending significantly higher since mid-June.

The rising disease metrics in the state have drawn attention from the Biden administration, which has designated Southern Nevada as a “sustained hotspot” for COVID-19 transmission. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra visited Las Vegas on Thursday to meet with public health officials and discuss the federal support being provided to the state in response to the recent surge.

The Southern Nevada Health District, meanwhile, reported 827 new coronavirus cases and seven additional deaths in Clark County, according to data from the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

Cumulative totals in the county rose to 272,979 cases and 4,599 deaths.

The county’s two-week positivity rate remained steady at 14.0 percent, according to state data.

The case total includes 148 “breakthrough cases” resulting in hospitalization, meaning the patients were sickened by the disease after being fully vaccinated. There have been 26 people who have died from a breakthrough case (0.005 percent of the county total), 23 of whom were hospitalized before their death, according to data from the health district.

People age 65 or older accounted for 71 percent of hospitalized breakthrough cases,, according to the county data. Of the cases, 122 people, or 82 percent, had an underlying condition.

There had been a total of 167 breakthrough cases requiring hospitalization recorded in Nevada as of July 15, according to the most recent report from the state health department. Of those cases, 63 percent occurred in people 70 or older.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.