Nevada reports record weekly number of COVID-19 deaths

Nevada set a somber milestone for most coronavirus deaths in one week as of Saturday, surpassing the benchmark reached just a week ago, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The state had 231 deaths over seven days, up from the record of 213 deaths set last week.

State data shows 607 people have died of coronavirus in the first 19 days of December, compared with 367 in November and 177 in October.

Nevada also surpassed 200,000 cases, with 2,601 new cases reported on Saturday and 43 additional deaths, according to the department’s coronavirus website.

Totals in the state rose to 201,858 cases and 2,751 deaths.

The moving seven-day average of daily reported cases decreased slightly after the figure had fluctuated throughout the week, reaching 2,558. The moving seven-day average of daily recorded deaths remained the same on Saturday, at 33.

On Saturday, for the 10th day in a row, the state’s two-week positivity rate declined, reaching 20.1 percent — a 0.3-percentage-point decrease from the previous day.

For the third day in a row, the number of patients in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases decreased. There were 1,924 hospitalizations as of Saturday, 27 fewer than the previous day.

Hospitalizations in Southern Nevada also decreased on Saturday, reaching 1,493 — 26 fewer than Friday’s figure.

Clark County on Saturday reported 1,824 additional cases and 22 new deaths, according to the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

The updated figures brought totals in the county to 152,291 cases and 2,140 deaths.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal reporter Sabrina Schnur contributed to this report.