Nevada records another day of above-average COVID-19 cases, deaths

Nevada on Thursday reported 436 new coronavirus cases and eight additional deaths.

Updated figures posted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ coronavirus website brought totals in the state to 320,150 cases and 5,523 deaths.

New cases remained higher than the 14-day moving average of daily reported cases, which dropped slightly to 213. Deaths were also higher than the average daily total of three recorded over the same period.

State officials have said that due to delayed reports and redistributed data, it is normal for daily increases to be higher than the moving averages. State and county health agencies redistribute the 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.

The state’s two-week positivity rate, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, remained unchanged at 5.4 percent on Thursday. The rate climbed from a low of 4.2 percent at the end of March to 5.9 percent on April 18, before slowly retreating in recent weeks, state data shows.

One day after the state reported the lowest number of hospitalizations in more than a month, the number of people hospitalized in Nevada with suspected or confirmed cases increased by 61, to 336.

The Southern Nevada Health District, meanwhile, reported 400 new cases and six additional deaths in Clark County.

The updated figures raised totals in the county to 248,006 cases and 4,351 deaths since the pandemic began.

The county’s two-week positivity rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point, matching the state average at 5.4 percent.

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