Nevada reports 1,068 new coronavirus cases, 7 deaths

There were 1,068 additional coronavirus cases reported in Nevada on Wednesday, the fourth time in less than two weeks the state reported more than 1,000 new cases in a day, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

There were also seven additional deaths reported on Wednesday, according to the state’s coronavirus website. The updated figures brought totals for Nevada to 104,093 cases and 1,814 deaths.

Prior to Oct. 24, the state went more than two months without reporting more than 1,000 new cases in its daily update, state data shows.

Reported new cases and the state’s positivity rate have both been increasing since mid-September. Aside from a spike of 23 additional deaths reported on Tuesday, the number of deaths, a disease indicator that lags a month or more behind new cases, has been trending downward since mid-August.

The state’s positivity rate, calculated by the Review-Journal as the number of cases divided by the total people tested, increased by 0.07 percentage points on Wednesday, reaching 12.64 percent, state data shows.

The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period, and it increased by 0.1 percentage points to reach 11.2 percent on Wednesday.

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.

There were 743 additional cases reported throughout Clark County on Wednesday, along with five more deaths, according to the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

The updated data brought totals in the county to 84,872 cases and 1,545 deaths.

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