Nevada reported higher than average new cases and deaths in the coronavirus on Wednesday, but the state’s positivity rate continued its recent decline to 8.6 percent – a level not seen since the end of October.
Updated figures from the Department of Health and Human Services published on the state’s coronavirus website showed 516 new COVID-19 cases and 16 additional deaths during the preceding day. This increased the cumulative totals for Nevada to 292,059 cases and 4,919 deaths.
New cases were well above the 14-day moving average of 335 per day, while deaths were nearly 50 percent higher than the daily moving average of 11 during the period.
But Caleb Cage, director of the state’s COVID-19 response, noted that new business has declined sharply recently and has fallen 55 percent in the past two weeks.
Nevada’s average daily cases are now less than half the levels during last year’s summer boom, and the state now has the fourth lowest case load (daily average cases over the past seven days per 100,000 population) among the 50 states, he said.
Deaths from COVID-19 have also declined, but are only now falling below the peak of the summer boom, Cage noted.
The state’s positivity rate, meanwhile, fell by 0.3 percentage points from the previous day in Wednesday’s update and has now fallen 13 percentage points from the highest of 21.6 per cent recorded on 13 January. The rate, which follows the percentage of people tested for COVID, -19 who are determined to be infected, was last seen as low on October 21, when it stood at 8.5 percent.
Hospitalizations of suspicious and confirmed COVID-19 patients also continued to decline, with 534 beds occupied, according to state data 47 with the previous day.
Both the state and provincial health agencies regularly redistribute data after it has been reported to better reflect the date of death or the onset of symptoms, therefore the moving average trend lines may differ from the daily reports and are considered better indicators of the direction of the outbreak. .
According to the Southern Nevada Health District, Clark County has meanwhile recorded 357 new COVID-19 cases and 17 additional deaths.
This brought the total total number of the province to 225,301 cases and 3,827 deaths.
The province’s 14-day test positivity rate was 9.7 percent, or 1.1 percent higher than the national average.
Contact Mike Brunker at [email protected] or 702-383-4656. Follow @mike_brunker on Twitter.