Nevada adds more than 1K new COVID-19 cases, 15 deaths

Nevada surpassed the 1,000 threshold in new COVID-19 cases for the first time in 13 days and added 15 deaths from the disease over the preceding day, according to state data posted Friday.

The state Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,099 new cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus on its nvhealthresponse.nv.gov website, the first time the figure has exceeded 1,000 since the agency reported 1,131 cases on Aug. 2. That brought the case total for the state to 59,749, though reports from local health districts and counties place it higher, at 59,797 as of Friday night.

The new fatalities pushed the state death toll to 1,045.

New cases were far above the daily average of nearly 728 over the preceding week, while fatalities were below the daily average of nearly 19 for the period.

Hospitalizations of confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients continued their recent decline, dropping by 34 occupied beds to a total of 948.

Testing volume also picked up after lagging behind recent levels for much of the week, with 8,608 tests reported over the preceding day.

The state’s stubborn infection or positivity rate, which experts consider a better barometer of the trend of the outbreak than new cases or death figures, resumed its climb after remaining flat for one day. The rate, calculated by the Review-Journal by dividing confirmed cases by the number of people tested, has risen every day but three since June 17 to reach 11.10 percent as of Friday’s report.

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The Southern Nevada Health District reported 888 new COVID-19 cases and 15 additional deaths from the disease in Clark County.

The figures posted on the district’s coronavirus web page raised the case total for the county to 51,457 and hiked the death toll to 884.

New cases were well above the daily average of just over 626 over the preceding week, while fatalities were slightly below the daily average of nearly 17 for the period.

In another development Friday, the Clark County School District issued what it said would be weekly updates on the number of new COVID-19 cases among district employees and students.

It said that since it first reported the figures last week, the district has received reports of 28 more cases involving employees and two for students, raising the totals to 129 and 24, respectively.

The report does not indicate if exposures were related to school activities.

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