Nevada reports 571 new coronavirus cases, 10 more deaths

There were 571 additional coronavirus cases reported in Nevada on Wednesday, along with 10 new deaths, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The updated figures posted to the state’s coronavirus website brought Nevada totals to 97,479 cases and 1,766 deaths.

It was the second time in the past 14 days that 10 or more additional deaths were reported by the state in its daily update. On Oct. 20, there were 15 deaths reported, state data shows.

The state’s positivity rate, which is calculated by the Review-Journal as the total cases divided by the number of people who have been tested since the start of the pandemic, increased slightly on Wednesday to reach 12.21 percent.

The rate has been slowly increasing since mid-September, when daily case reports also started rising. The daily reports of fatalities have not seen the same increase, although rises in deaths typically lag several weeks behind increases in new cases.

The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period and it increased by 0.3 percentage points on Wednesday to reach 10.1 percent. The rate, which started being reported by the state on Oct. 15, reached 10 percent for the first time Sunday.

The rate is calculated using total “testing encounters,” which produces lower percentages because the figure includes people who received multiple tests at different points during the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the Nevada Hospital Association said in a statement included with its daily COVID-19 update that the state is seeing an increase in hospitalizations.

“However, this increase is disproportionately low when compared to the increase in test positivity rates,” the association said.

There has also been a continuing decline in the need for intensive care and ventilators for COVID-19 patients, the statement said.

There are currently 565 people hospitalized in the state with either confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, according to the state health department data.

There were 322 additional cases reported in Clark County on Wednesday, along with nine new fatalities, according to data posted to the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

The updated figures brought totals in the county to 80,104 cases and 1,506 deaths.

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