New Nevada COVID cases high, but not so deaths, positivity rate

Nevada on Tuesday reported 470 new coronavirus cases and three additional deaths over the preceding day.

Updated figures posted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ coronavirus website brought totals in the state to 319,250 cases and 5,509 deaths.

New cases were well above the two-week moving average of daily recorded cases, which dropped to 225. Deaths, however, matched the moving two-week average of three daily recorded fatalities.

All of the deaths recorded on Tuesday occurred in Clark County, according to data from the Southern Nevada Health District’s coronavirus website.

Related: Tracking coronavirus in Nevada through data

State and county health agencies often 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 5.5 percent on Tuesday. 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.

There were 338 people in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday’s report, which is 21 more than the previous day.

Clark County on Tuesday reported 375 new cases in addition to the fatalities, according to the county health district.

Cumulative totals for the county rose to 247,186 cases and 4,342 deaths.

Clark County’s two-week positivity rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 5.6 percent, according to state data.

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