Nevada adds 2.4K COVID cases, 20 deaths over weekend

Nevada on Monday reported 2,400 new coronavirus cases and 20 deaths over the preceding three days — the highest totals in both categories since the state ceased weekend reporting in mid-April — and another jump in the state’s test positivity rate.

Data posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services on the state’s coronavirus website for Friday through Sunday showed new COVID-19 cases were more than 300 above the 2,067 reported on July 19.

The two-week moving average of new cases also continued to rise to 778 per day, up 65 from the 713 cases a day reported Friday.

The state’s case total, meanwhile, reached 351,443.

The two-week moving average of new cases has been climbing since it reached a low of 132 on June 5, with much of that growth occurring in Clark County.

Fatalities reported Monday pushed the state death toll to 5,837. The 20 reported deaths also were above the two-week moving average of five per day when spread over three days. The moving average was unchanged from Friday.

Data guide: COVID-19’s impact on Nevada

Deaths from the disease caused by the coronavirus have remained mostly flat while the other major metrics tracked by the state have been climbing steadily. But it also has inched higher in recent weeks from a two-week average of two deaths a day as of June 1, according to the state data.

The updated data showed that 1,046 people were hospitalized with either confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the state as of Sunday, an increase of 45 from the previous report. That number has been rising for weeks and is starting to approach the 1,147 peak reached during the second wave of infections last summer. During that wave, Clark County hospitals beds and canceled elective surgeries to cope with the growing numbers of COVID patients.

The state’s two-week positivity rate, meanwhile, which essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected, increased by 0.7 percentage points to 13.5 percent, according to state data.

The rate has now risen over 10 percentage points in just over a month after reaching a recent low of 3.3 percent on June 9.

Nevada no longer reports numbers over the weekend, and public health officials have said that reporting on Monday and sometimes Tuesday can be inflated as a result of the delayed compilation of local reports.

State and county health agencies also often redistribute the daily data after it is reported to better reflect the date of death or a test 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.

Amid the rising metrics, the Clark County Commission last week instituted a mask mandate for all employees in the county. But it stopped short of mandating masks for everyone, something that had previously been recommended by the Southern Nevada Health District.

The health district reported 2,123 new cases in Clark County for Friday through Sunday, bringing the local cumulative case total to 275,983. It also reported all 20 of the state’s deaths, bringing the number of deaths in the county to 4,636.

The county’s 14-day positivity rate also climbed to 14.7 percent, a level last seen in early February.

County numbers are reflected in the statewide totals.

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