Clark County COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations rise again

Clark County on Wednesday added 432 new coronavirus cases and nine deaths as its major COVID-19 metrics either edged higher or remained flat .

The updates brought totals posted by the Southern Nevada Health District for the county to 333,478 cases and 5,992 deaths.

New cases were well above the two-week moving average of 314 per day, which was up from 309 on Tuesday. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities in the county was unchanged at four.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county increased by 34, to 488, according to data from the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The county’s 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, held steady at 5.8 percent.

All four key COVID-19 metrics in the county have been falling fairly steadily since mid- to late-August and are well below the levels seen during the summer surge of the disease in the state.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The new reporting came a day after Clark County climbed back into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high” rate of transmission category. The county had dropped into the “substantial” tier on Monday, but higher case rate pushed numbers back into the “high” tier, along with nearly all other Nevada counties.

As of Wednesday, the only county not in the high-risk tier was Eureka County in northeast Nevada, which was in the substantial category, according to CDC data.

The state, meanwhile, reported 770 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths during the preceding day. That brought totals posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services to 441,916 cases and 7,668 deaths.

Nevada’s 14-day moving average of new cases increased to 486 per day from 481 on Tuesday. The two-week average for fatalities held steady at six per day.

State and county health agencies often redistribute 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.

Of the state’s other closely watched metrics, the state’s two-week test positivity rate was unchanged at 6.6 percent, while the number of people in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases rose to 693, 24 more than on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday’s report, state data show that 56.50 percent of Nevadans 12 and older had been fully vaccinated, compared to 55.77 percent in Clark County. That number fluctuates widely throughout the state.

Washoe County has the state’s highest vaccination rate, at 65.55 percent, while Storey County has the lowest at 20.04 percent.

Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.