Clark County, Nevada both see record one-day jumps in COVID-19 cases

Nevada reported a record one-day jump of more than 400 new COVID-19 cases, adding to signs that the disease caused by the new coronavirus is surging in the state.

Clark County recorded a one-day high of 412 over the preceding day and two additional deaths, according to government data posted Tuesday.

The Southern Nevada Health District reported the new cases on its coronavirus website, pushing the total for the county to 11,186. That was well above the daily average of just under 280 over the preceding week and surpassed the biggest previous one-day jump of 407 reported on Friday.

The county estimated almost 7,900 infected people have recovered.

The new fatalities increased the county death toll from the disease caused by the new coronavirus to 402. The figure was below the daily average of three over the period.

The health district reported 28 new hospitalizations for COVID-19 over the preceding day, considerably higher than the daily average of nearly 13 over the preceding week.

An update from the Nevada Hospital Association on Monday showed the seven-day moving average for hospitalizations trending slightly higher in the state.

The report showed that Southern Nevada hospitals have additional capacity for new patients, with 71 percent of available beds and 78 percent of intensive care unit beds occupied as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, updated figures posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services on its nvhealthresponse.nv.gov site showed 462 new COVID-19 cases over the preceding day, increasing the total number of cases reported in Nevada to 13,997.

By Tuesday evening, individual counties had reported 14,069 cases.

The state death toll rose to 492, the data showed.

New cases were well above the daily average of just over 322 for the preceding week and surpassed the previous one-day jump in cases of 445 on Friday. It was the third time in the past week that the daily increase has topped 400.

The state’s infection rate rose for the sixth day in a row, reaching 5.6 percent.

Tuesday’s numbers from the health district and the state may be inflated because of a reporting backlog that typically occurs over weekends, resulting in lower than average numbers being reported on Monday and higher figures on Tuesday.

Both the health district and state often redistribute new case and death data after its daily announcements to better reflect when a patient experienced an onset of symptoms or when a death occurred. That reduces reporting irregularities, but also means that the detailed reports don’t match the totals announced daily.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Michael Scott Davidson contributed to this report.