Clark County sees jump in COVID-19 stats, adding 107 cases, 7 deaths

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Clark County rebounded to triple digits overnight and seven new deaths were reported, according to data posted Tuesday by the Southern Nevada Health District.

A day after the district reported only a dozen new cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus — the lowest number since the early days of the outbreak in Nevada in March — the district added 107 new cases, bringing the total for the county to 4,869.

The district estimated that 4,133 of those patients have recovered.

The daily figure was nearly double the average of 57 daily cases reported by the district over the preceding week and the biggest one-day increase since the district reported the identical number of new cases in the county on May 2.

The new fatalities, meanwhile, pushed the county death toll to 267. The new deaths also were above the average of just under five a day over the preceding week.

The state Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, reported 159 new COVID-19 cases in Nevada, bringing the total to 6,311. That was well above the daily average of 94 cases over the preceding week.

The state also raised the death toll to 321, nine higher than the 312 the agency reported late Monday.

The total number of positive cases was derived from tests on 64,075 people, translating to an infection rate of 9.8 percent of those tested.

The infection rate has been trending downward in the state for several weeks now as a long-standing shortage of testing supplies has eased, resulting in more people with mild to moderate symptoms and some without any symptoms being checked.

In fact, the state data posted Tuesday on the nvhealthresponse.nv.gov website showed that 3,832 people were tested in the 24 hours preceding the report, the highest one-day total since the state began reporting the number of tests on March 22.

Public health experts say the infection and death rates and the number of new hospitalizations — all of which have been flat or heading lower in recent weeks — are better indicators of the status of the COVID-19 outbreak in Nevada than the number of new cases, which often fluctuates widely from day to day.

In other developments Tuesday:

— The number of cases and deaths attributed to COVID-19 among residents of Nevada’s assisted living and nursing homes continues to climb. The state reported on its tracking tool of state-run and -regulated facilities that the number of confirmed cases in the homes has reached 413, with 59 deaths reported. All but one of the deaths have been among residents of the facilities. The deaths account for 19 percent of the fatalities from the disease reported in the state.

— Nye County authorities reported four new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total in the county to 48. The county says that 19 of those patients have recovered. The new cases were two residents of Pahrump and two of Amargosa Valley, the county said, but provided no information on their conditions.

— The Regional Information Center in Washoe County reported 16 new COVID-19 cases and one additional death. The report raised the total confirmed cases in the county to 1,116, of whom 539 have recovered, according to the center. The fatality of a man in his 40s with no underlying health conditions raised the county death toll to 40.

— The Carson City Health and Human Services reported three new COVID-19 cases in the Quad-County Region in Northern Nevada: one in a woman in her 20s from Lyon County, one in a male under 18 and one in a man in his 80s, both of the latter in Carson City. The new case brought the total for the region that includes Douglas and Storey counties to 127.

— Humboldt County reported two new cases of the disease in a teenage male and a woman in her 30s, both of whom had close contact with a previously diagnosed patient. The new cases brought the total number of cases to 71 in the rural county.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Mike Brunker at mbrunker@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.