Faulty Clark County report makes Nevada COVID-19 cases appear lower
Nevada reported 1,090 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday — the lowest daily increase since Nov. 9 — but officials in Clark County said new case numbers there were “artificially low” for the day due to a technical issue and reporting delays.
Data on Wednesday will reflect updated information and accurate case counts for Clark County, the Southern Nevada Health District said after reporting just 19 new cases from the previous day.
In addition to the low number of new cases, state data showed 38 additional deaths.
Those figures, from the state Department of Health and Human Services, brought statewide totals to 206,974 cases and 2,835 deaths since the outbreak began at the start of March.
Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada
The state’s moving two-week positive rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point, to 19.6 percent.
The artificially low case numbers for Tuesday moved the state’s two-week average to 1,921 — the first time it fell below 2,000 in a month. But that figure also is likely to increase in Wednesday’s report when the Clark County data are corrected.
The moving average of daily deaths over the preceding two weeks, meanwhile, rose to 24, up from 21 on Monday.
Hospitalizations of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients were unchanged from the previous day at 1,996, according to the state data. The numbers of patients in intensive care or on ventilators also were mostly stable, with just a slight uptick on ventilator use.
In an update Tuesday, the Nevada Hospital Association said statewide hospitalizations had been stable for the past week, providing “some breathing room for hospitals.” But the numbers have leveled off near their all-time highs, it noted.
It also reported that data from Northern Nevada facilities shows that new hospitalizations there have risen faster than new cases, a trend that in the past has indicated testing supply issues or other factors that are delaying test results.
Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.