Data error forces SNHD to erase COVID-19 ‘recoveries’ in Clark County

The number of Clark County residents estimated to have recovered from COVID-19 fell by more than 400 people Thursday after local health officials found an error in their hospitalization data.

The problem stemmed from cases where hospitalized COVID-19 patients had no known discharge date, according to Southern Nevada Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore. In those cases, the health district’s database of cases had erroneously reported patients were discharged the same day they were admitted to the hospital.

Sizemore said health district staff began looking into the issue after the number of estimated recoveries jumped by more than 600 people on May 5.

“The issue has been identified and corrected,” Sizemore wrote in an email.

The health district on Friday also detailed for the first time the criteria used to determine if a patient is considered recovered. To be counted, it said, a patient must be alive, not hospitalized, have completed quarantine or isolation and be 14 days past the onset of symptoms.

The total estimated recoveries in the county is now 3,867 people, about three-quarters of all cases the health district has reported.

On Friday, the county also reported 91 new cases and nine deaths over the preceding day. The health district report pushed the totals for the county to 5,235 cases and 291 deaths.

The district published its latest report in a new format and for the first time provided a per capita breakdown of cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. As of Friday’s report, that rate stood at 224.72 cases per 100,000 population.

Washoe County reported 36 new cases Friday, resulting in a county total of 1,190 cases. It also reported one additional death and seven more recoveries.

Nye County reported two new cases Friday, one in Pahrump and one in Amargosa Valley. The county total is now 55.

Earlier, Nevada public health officials reported 115 new COVID-19 cases overnight, bringing the total for the state to 6,614. It also raised the state death toll to 345, six more than it reported on Thursday.

The number of new cases was slightly higher than the daily average of about 101 new cases over the preceding week.

The positive tests for cases of the disease were derived from tests on 72,146 people, resulting in an infection rate of 9.16 percent of those tested. That figure has been declining steadily in the state since it peaked at 12.66 percent on April 23.

Public health experts have said they anticipated the number of new cases reported each day would climb as testing for coronavirus infections became more widespread. The infection rate, which has been falling steadily for weeks in the state, and deaths and hospitalizations, which have been mostly flat, are more accurate indicators of the status of the outbreak, they say.

This week has seen an increase in the number of tests administered daily, surpassing 3,000 tests three times since Saturday, according the data posted on the state’s nvhealthresponse.nv.gov website. Friday’s report covering the preceding day indicated 2,798 tests were conducted.

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