All COVID-19 metrics for Clark County show slight improvement

Clark County on Monday reported 460 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths over the preceding three days as all four key metrics for the disease showed improvement.

Updated figures from the Southern Nevada Health District pushed totals for the county to 343,399 cases and 6,169 deaths.

New cases for Friday through Sunday averaged 153 per day, well below the two-week moving average of 302 cases per day. The average was down from the 312 reported on Wednesday, the most recent day the rate could be calculated because of a gap in state data.

The county death toll from the disease caused by the new coronavirus declined by one during the period, according to health district figures. It was not immediately clear what caused the revision, but officials have previously corrected tallies after discovering that some cases or deaths had been counted twice or after determining that the victim was not a county resident.

The county’s other key COVID-19 metrics — hospitalizations and test positivity rate — had not been updated since Wednesday, as the state did not report data either Thursday or Friday because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Both showed slight improvements.

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Hospitalizations of confirmed and suspected cases in county hospitals stood at 575 as of Monday’s update, down by three from Wednesday.

The county’s test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested who are found to be infected, declined by 0.2 percentage points from Wednesday’s report to 6.7 percent. The rate has now dropped by 0.4 percentage points from its recent high of 7.1 percent on Nov. 19.

All four indicators had been declining steadily from mid-August through September before turning higher at the beginning of November. The latest data show that rates have turned lower over the past week or so.

That was also reflected in data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which measures metrics using a seven-day moving average rather than the 14-day span favored by the state. As of Monday, it showed Clark County in the “substantial” risk transmission category, down from the “high” risk category where it has been since the beginning of the month.

For the county to exit the state’s mask mandate for indoor public spaces it must record back to back weeks with a test positivity rate of 8.0 percent or lower and a new case ratio under 50 cases per 100,000 population. As of Monday, those figures stood at 7.76 percent positivity rate and 92.38 cases per 100,000.

The state, meanwhile, reported 1,823 COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths over the preceding five days.

Updated figures posted by the Department of Health and Human Services pushed totals to 456,803 cases and 7,985 deaths.

Divided by five, the average for the period of nearly 365 cases per day was well below the 14 day moving average of 426 per day.

Fatalities over the period also were well below the 14-day average of seven per day.

The test positivity rate stood at 7.2 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from Wednesday’s report.

The state reported 719 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Monday, unchanged from Wednesday’s report.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.