How many COVID variant cases are in Nevada now?

Nevada is seeing increasing infections of the U.K. COVID-19 variant, believed to be deadlier and more easily transmissible than other coronavirus strains.

The state has reported 62 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant as of Tuesday, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of the cases, at least 45, were identified in Washoe County, according to local health officials there. It has been spread primarily through youth sporting events and private gatherings.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported 26 cases among Clark County residents on Wednesday.

“That’s why it’s so important for us to expedite the vaccination campaign as much as possible,” SNHD chief health officer Dr. Fermin Leguen said. ”The less transmission we have in the community, the less possible it is for the variant to establish itself here.”

A Douglas County resident with no travel history and no known exposures recently tested positive for the variant, Carson City Health and Human Services reported Tuesday. It is the second case in the state’s Quad-County Region, following a Carson City resident who tested positive Friday.

At least eight cases have been detected in Clark County as of late February. Southern Nevada Health District officials did not immediately return a request for updated numbers on Tuesday afternoon.

Nationwide, more than 11,500 cases of the variant have been reported, according to the CDC.

Neighboring California has reported about 800 cases, the third-most of any state. Florida has reported the most of any state, about 2,350.

In late February, the director of Nevada’s public health lab, Mark Pandori, said he wasn’t too worried about a new pair of coronavirus variants first detected in California.

Not only are the strains already in both Northern and Southern Nevada, but they have been for several months and accounted for about one-quarter of positive cases genetically sequenced by the lab, Pandori said. He is director of the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.

Scientists are closely watching the new variants, including ones out of the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. Nevada’s public health lab in Reno performs daily genetic sequencing on positive test results to track the spread of variants.

Reporter Mary Hynes contributed to this report.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.