Clark County sees another increase in COVID metrics

Clark County saw another increase in COVID-19 metrics on Wednesday, continuing a trend that has persisted for weeks.

The county’s case rate per 100,000 people — a key metric for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — stood at 86.07 on Wednesday, up from 69.48 at this time last week. CDC data also showed the county’s test positivity rate at 15.42 percent, according to data last updated Saturday.

State officials had removed test positivity rate from the state dashboard when they switched to weekly reports, saying the metric is no longer reliable because so many people are using at-home tests that are not recorded by state or local officials.

Still, the 15.42 percent figure is enough to push Clark County into the “high rate of transmission,” according to the CDC.

The county’s 14-day moving average of daily new cases increased to 253 on Wednesday. That number has been inching up for weeks as the county and state continue to see increases in most metrics.

Hospitalizations also increased in the county, and state data showed that 137 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from 103 at this time last week.

The Nevada Hospital Association said in its weekly update that hospitalizations are increasing in Clark County, the only part of the state that is currently seeing an increase.

But the trade group also noted that numbers are “near the all-time lows.”

Meanwhile, the state reported similar increases.

The 14-day moving average of daily new cases increased to 317, from 195 last week.

The two-week moving average of daily deaths held steady at one for both the state and county.

Clark County isn’t alone in its transmission rate. According to CDC data, Washoe, Douglas, Nye and Lyon counties and county-equivalent Carson City are also in the agency’s highest transmission tier.

That’s different than the CDC’s “community level,” a separate tracker that calculates a county’s risk meter by looking at case rate and hospitalizations.

In that metric, which does not look at test positivity rate, Clark County and nearly the entire state are in the “low” tier. The only county not in “low” is White Pine County, which is in the “high” tier.

As of Wednesday, state data showed that 57.29 percent of Nevadans age 5 and older are considered fully vaccinated, compared with 56.64 percent in Clark County.

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