Clark County COVID-19 positivity rate falls to ‘moderate’ risk category

Clark County’s coronavirus test positivity rate on Monday dropped into the “moderate” transmission risk category for the first time since the state mask mandate was announced July 27.

The improving metrics mean the county is making progress toward exiting the state mask mandate in place for crowded indoor areas, though it still has a ways to go.

The 14-day average positivity rate translates to 7.47 percent using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s preferred seven-day average, which puts the county in the “moderate” transmission category in its risk classification system.

To exit Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s mask mandate, a county must record back-to-back weeks with a positivity rate of 8.0 percent or lower and fewer than 50 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. As of Monday, the county’s rate in the latter category stood at 143.69 cases per 100,000 over the past week, a slight increase from this time last week.

All Nevada counties currently are rated in the CDC’s “high” transmission tier. State officials will update the state’s mask guidelines Tuesday, but all 17 counties are expected to remain in the category.

The Southern Nevada Health District on Monday reported 1,289 new coronavirus cases and 17 deaths over the preceding three days.

New cases in the county were almost right at the two-week moving average of 399 when averaged over three days. The average itself jumped by 32 new cases per day from the 367 reported on Friday.

Deaths were close to the average for the period of six per day when averaged over three days, while the average dropped from eight on Friday.

Hospitalizations also declined, with 609 suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases in county hospitals, 33 fewer than the 642 in Friday’s report.

The 14-day test positivity rate, which tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, dropped a full percentage point to 6.9 percent.

The updates pushed pandemic totals for the county to 322,066 cases and 5,677 deaths.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The state, meanwhile, reported 1,871 new cases and 17 deaths. That was the fewest new cases reported after a weekend in more than two months.

That brought state totals to 424,200 cases and 7,188 deaths, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The 14-day moving average of new cases itself rose slightly from 683 to 702. But new cases were below the average, when spread over three days. The average of daily fatalities for the period dropped from 13 to 10.

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.

The state’s two-week test positivity rate dropped 1.3 percentage points to 8.8 percent.

The rate has retreated from its recent high of 16.4 percent on Aug. 13, according to state data. Since then, it dropped quickly and has again started to go down after flattening for a few weeks.

The state also reported that 861 people in Nevada were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, 40 fewer than on Friday. That figure has been dropping slowly since late August.

As of Monday’s report, 54.30 percent of Nevadans 12 and older had been fully vaccinated. That number dropped because the state updated its vaccination information to remove doses administered to out-of-state residents and make other adjustments.

The state also announced Monday that it would start reporting results from rapid antigen tests to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. That initially added about 9,500 “probable” cases to the dashboard on Monday, though the “confirmed” case count, which is what the Review-Journal is continuing to track, was unaffected.

Rapid antigen tests can return results in about 15 minutes, but are considered less accurate than traditional molecular tests.

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