Clark County’s COVID-19 metrics all rise, adding to signs of a surge

Clark County on Tuesday reported 528 new coronavirus cases and 10 deaths during the previous day as all four of its major COVID-19 metrics increased.

Updated figures posted by the Southern Nevada Health District pushed totals in the county to 347,369 cases and 6,268 deaths.

New cases were well above the two-week moving average, which increased by 29 to 326 per day. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities in the county increased from four to five.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county increased by 32, to 557, 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, increased 0.1 percentage point to 7.2 percent.

That translated to 9.16 percent using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s preferred seven-day average, putting the county in the “substantial” risk of transmission category for that metric.

The county’s case rate per 100,000 people stood at 151.85 as of Tuesday afternoon, well above the 94.81 reported at this time last week and in the CDC’s “high” risk category.

For a county to exit the state mask mandate for crowded indoor public spaces, it must record back-to-back weeks with a seven-day average case rate under 50 per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate under 8 percent — both considered as posing a “moderate” or “low” risk of transmission by the CDC.

State officials on Tuesday afternoon said that all Nevada counties except Esmeralda County remain under the mask mandate.

Esmeralda County is in the “low” transmission rate, meaning vaccinated residents are not required to mask up in indoor public spaces. Lincoln County was in the “substantial” transmission rate, while all other counties are in the “high” tier.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

The state, meanwhile, reported 680 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths during the preceding day. That brought Nevada totals to 462,159 cases and 8,126 deaths.

Nevada’s 14-day moving average of new cases decreased to 440 per day from 456 on Tuesday. The two-week average for fatalities increased by one to seven 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 two-week test positivity rate held steady at 7.4 percent, while the number of people in Nevada hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases rose to 674, 33 more than on Monday.

As of Tuesday’s report, state data show that 53.00 percent of Nevadans 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, compared with 52.27 percent in Clark County. That number fluctuates widely throughout the state.

Carson City had the state’s highest vaccination rate, at 61.72 percent, while Storey County was lowest at 19.85 percent.

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