Clark County COVID-19 case rate continues to fall as surge recedes

Clark County on Tuesday reported 884 new coronavirus cases and 43 deaths as the two-week moving average of daily cases dropped below 1,000 for the first time in months.

The new report, which pushed totals posted by the Southern Nevada Health District to 482,067 cases and 7,114 deaths, added to the recent trend of quickly dropping case counts.

New cases were below the two-week average, which dropped from 1,022 on Monday to 913. The two-week moving average of daily deaths increased to 10 from nine.

While the state tracks metrics using a 14-day average, the mask mandate is tied to metrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are tracked using a seven-day average.

For a county to exit the state mask mandate for crowded indoor public spaces, it must record back-to-back weeks with a seven-day average case rate under 50 per 100,000 residents and a seven-day test positivity rate below 8 percent — metrics considered as posing a “moderate” or “low” risk of transmission by the CDC.

Clark County’s numbers still were well above those markers on Tuesday. The seven-day test positivity rate was 19.22 percent Tuesday afternoon, more than seven percentage points lower than last week. The case rate also dropped significantly, to 268.54 on Tuesday afternoon, more than 500 below the 784 reported at this time last week.

The county briefly dipped below a case rate of 100 per 100,000 people in November before the omicron-driven surge caused numbers to skyrocket across the board. For weeks, though, the numbers have been dropping, in line with what public health officials had expected to see once the county hit the peak of the current surge.

For months, state officials have updated the Silver State’s mask guidelines on Tuesday afternoons, but as of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday they had not released an update. A spokesperson for Gov. Steve Sisolak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The county’s 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the number of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 25.3 percent. The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county increased by seven, to 1,019.

Meanwhile, the state reported 1,588 new cases and 50 deaths, bringing totals posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services to 635,438 cases and 9,236 deaths.

State and county health agencies often redistribute 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.

New cases statewide were below the two-week moving average, which dropped from 1,632 on Monday to 1,444. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities increased to 14 from 13.

Of the state’s other closely watched metrics, the 14-day test positivity rate decreased 1 percentage point to 27.1 percent, while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases increased by 22, to 1,240.

As of Tuesday, state data showed that 56.08 percent of Nevadans 5 or older had been fully vaccinated, compared with 55.48 percent in Clark County.

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