Nevada sees biggest jump in new coronavirus cases in 3 months

Nevada reported the largest one-day number of coronavirus cases in three months on Friday, bringing the statewide total to nearly 100,000 cases.

There were 1,232 additional cases reported in the state on Friday, along with eight additional deaths, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ coronavirus website. The daily report of new cases hasn’t been that high since there were 1,262 new cases reported on July 31.

Friday was also the third time in the past week that more than 1,000 cases were reported in one day. On Oct. 24, there were 1,146 new cases, and 1,075 new cases were reported on Thursday, state data shows.

The updated figures brought totals in the state to 99,786 cases and 1,777 deaths, state data shows.

Conditions in Nevada reflected those of the nation, which has seen confirmed cases on the rise in 47 states.

The U.S. now has 9 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. It took two weeks to reach the mark from 8 million, the fastest jump of 1 million yet. It had taken more than three weeks for the total to rise from 7 million to 8 million.

Nationwide, deaths are up 14 percent over the past two weeks, averaging more than 800 every day. The virus has now killed more than 229,000 Americans.

Nevada is in the red zone for COVID-19 cases as tracked by the White House’s COVID-19 task force and ranks 22nd among states, with just over 100 cases per 100,000 residents, Gov. Steve Sisolak said at a press conference Wednesday.

In Clark County, there were 890 additional cases reported on Friday, along with seven new fatalities, according to updated figures posted to the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

Totals in the county on Friday reached 81,684 cases and 1,515 deaths, according to the county health department data.

In a statement sent Friday, the county health district said Friday’s uptick in cases “is not unexpected as we are seeing continued community transmission and people continue to get tested.”

“However, the increase in the positivity rate serves as a stark reminder to the public of the importance of following public health recommendations to protect themselves and others to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the community,” the statement said.

The state’s positivity rate, which is calculated by the Review-Journal as the total cases divided by the number of people who have been tested since the start of the pandemic, jumped by 0.08 percentage points on Friday to reach 12.42 percent.

The rate has been slowly increasing since mid-September, when daily case reports also started rising. The daily reports of fatalities have not seen the same increase, although rises in deaths typically lag several weeks behind increases in new cases.

The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period, and it increased by 0.3 percentage points on Friday to reach 10.3 percent, state data shows. The two-week rate reported by the department has been hovering near 10 percent for the past week.

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.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.