Clark County logs 326 new COVID-19 cases, 3 more deaths

Clark County recorded 326 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths over the preceding day, according to data posted Friday.

The Southern Nevada Health District posted the new figures on the day that Gov. Steve Sisolak’s directive requiring people to wear face masks in nearly all public spaces to help contain the spread of the disease took effect.

The data posted on the district’s coronavirus web page raised the total cases reported in the county to 12,204 and pushed the death toll to 408. The district estimates that 8,514 of those patients have recovered.

New cases were slightly below the daily average of 334 over the preceding week, while the additional fatalities were a bit above the daily average of just over 2½ for the period.

The health district reported 14 new hospitalizations over the preceding day, below the daily average of just under 20 over the preceding week.

Interactive: Data on coronavirus’ impact on Nevada

Updated figures from the state Health and Human Services Department, meanwhile, showed the state tallied 381 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths over the preceding day.

The new cases reported by the agency on its nvhealthresponse.nv.gov web page, pushed Nevada’s total cases to 15,240 and the death toll to 498. (Reports from local health district and county agencies put the case total somewhat higher, at 15,366 as of late Friday, the result of different reporting cycles at the local and state level).

The new cases figure retreated from a record 497 cases reported on Thursday, and was below the daily average of just over 397 over the preceding week.

The additional fatalities were on par with the daily average reported over the period.

The state infection rate, a better barometer on the trend of the outbreak in Nevada than new cases and deaths, registered its ninth straight daily increase. After trending lower over more than two months, the rate — the number of confirmed cases divided by people tested — bottomed out at 5.20 percent on June 17 before beginning to slowly increase. As of Friday’s report, it stood at 5.91 percent.

Public health experts say the wider availability of COVID-19 testing may be playing a role in the recent uptick, though the infection rate continued to decline through the period when the tests became more widely available before the recent climb.

As of Friday’s report, 257,931 people have received tests for the virus, accounting for a bit over 8 percent of Nevada’s estimated population of 3.08 million as of July 2019, according to Census Bureau data.

The reopening of the state’s “nonessential businesses,” coupled with spotty compliance with safety guidelines like social distancing and avoiding large gatherings, appears to be playing a significant role in the surge.

Julia Peek, deputy administrator of the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health, said Wednesday at Sisolak’s news conference that data pulled from June 4 to June 16 showed that 11 percent of confirmed cases had been to a mass gathering and that 12 percent had attended a “civic activist event,” likely one of a series of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

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