Clark County residents regularly visited restaurants, hotels and medical facilities before being diagnosed with COVID-19, according to new data released Wednesday.
For the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, the Southern Nevada Health District has voluntarily published a list of the state’s most “possible exposure sites” on its website.
The data do not show where it is known that someone contracted COVID-19. Instead, it indicates where an infected person traveled to in the fourteen days before he or she was symptomatically affected or tested.
The health officer of SNHD, dr. Fermin Leguen, said the data is being published due to demand from the news media and the public.
“It’s a way to save time,” he said.
The data lists broad categories of businesses rather than individual locations. An undefined “other” category topped the list with more than 23,000 possible exposures. Last year, state health officials said the category represents businesses that do not match other categories.
This is followed by ‘food establishments’ with more than 13,000 possible exposures, ‘hotel / motel’ with more than 12,000 and ‘medical facilities’ with almost 12,000.
Other categories with the best positions include ‘jobs’, grocery stores, casinos and schools.
The exposure location data are based on voluntary self-reporting by people who tested positive during the disease investigation or contact detection process.
The health district website says that data on some categories were only collected in mid-October, and that some places visited by infected people fit into several categories. The website does not mention how far the data extends.
Wednesday’s release is only the second time that potential data on exposure sites in Nevada has been published.
Government officials released similar data to the Review Journal in September as part of a public record request.
At the time, the data showed that more than one in four Clark County residents infected with COVID-19 listed a hotel, motel or resort as a possible exposure site. According to reports, strip hotel casinos were particularly crowded with reported locations in June, July and August in southern Nevada.
Before the reports were released, Gov. Steve Sisolak said he was concerned about businesses being harmed by ‘half information’. State health officials stopped publishing them shortly thereafter.
Leguen said the data has always had a limited value to the health district. He added that the agency’s environmental health department does use the data to decide where to conduct inspections.
Julia Peek, deputy administrator of the department of health and human services, said on Wednesday that she was pleased that the health district was sharing the information.
“While useful in some contexts, it is certainly not a smoking weapon,” she said. “So we have to look at it in combination with other things, but (we are) certainly pleased that Southern Nevada is publishing what they can, which will be useful to the public.”
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at [email protected] or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.