Nevada reports 730 new coronavirus cases, 7 more deaths
There were 730 new coronavirus cases reported in Nevada on Tuesday, along with seven additional deaths, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The updated figures posted to the department’s coronavirus website brought totals in the state to 96,908 cases and 1,756 deaths.
The state’s positivity rate, which is calculated by the Review-Journal as the total cases divided by the number of people who have been tested since the start of the pandemic, reached 12.19 percent on Tuesday.
The rate has been slowly increasing since mid-September, when daily case reports also started rising. The daily reports of fatalities have not seen the same increase, although rises in deaths typically lag several weeks behind increases in new cases.
The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period, and it remained at 9.8 percent on Tuesday. The rate, which started being reported by the state on Oct. 15, reached 10 percent for the first time Sunday but dropped to its current figure the following day.
The rate is calculated using total “testing encounters,” which produces lower percentages because the figure includes people who received multiple tests at different points during the pandemic.
In Clark County, 542 new cases were reported Tuesday by the Southern Nevada Health District, along with four additional deaths. The updated figures posted to the health district’s coronavirus website brought totals in the county to 79,782 cases and 1,497 deaths.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.