Below is the full COVID-19 report for Tuesday, Aug. 17
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Clark County reached a grim milestone on Wednesday as it surpassed 5,000 COVID-19-related deaths.
“This is a tragedy for everyone who has lost a loved one, family member, and friend, and I offer my condolences to all those who have been impacted by the pandemic,” said Dr. Fermin Leguen, District Health Officer for the Southern Nevada Health District.
Of the 25 deaths reported in Nevada in the past day, 17 are from Clark County, according to data released today.
On a positive note, the state and county’s test positivity rates have fallen in recent days. Nevada’s rate is at 15.6%, while the test positivity in Clark County is at 15.3%.
Nevada’s most populous county continues to fuel the higher numbers, with about 76% of the state’s daily COVID-19 cases. Nevada reported 1,429 new cases, with 1,089 coming from Clark County.
Nevada continues to be labeled a place with high COVID-19 transmission and Clark County remains “an area of concern,” according to an updated White House report released Tuesday. The county was first labeled a “sustained hot spot” on July 5.
Almost all of Nevada is labeled as a “high transmission” area, and it is now one of 44 listed as high transmission states. The CDC is using cases per 100,000 over the past seven days to determine high transmission.
There are 221.8 new cases reported per 100,000 every seven days in Clark County, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
The health district encourages everyone to get vaccinated, and those who are not yet fully vaccinated to get their second doses as soon as possible. “The vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death,” SNHD noted in a news release Wednesday.
A BREAKDOWN OF CASES & DEATHS & TESTING
Nevada’s case count grew by 1,429 in the past day, most from Clark County (1,089). The state’s total cases are now at 376,080. Clark County has a total of 295,104. It’s important to note that the state no longer updates the dashboard on the weekend or holidays, which may be why Monday and Tuesday reports show higher case and death totals.
Nevada’s test positivity rate is at 15.6%, down from 16.1%. It fell below 5.0%, the World Health Organization’s goal, on May 17 and climbed above it on June 28. Clark County’s rate has fallen to 15.3%.
Of the 25 additional COVID-19-related deaths reported in the past day, 17 were from Clark County. Southern Nevada now accounts for 5,005 of the state’s 6,248 deaths. The 14-day rolling average is 11 deaths per day.
As of Aug. 11, the health district reports there are 225 breakthrough hospitalizations and 49 breakthrough deaths.
As of Tuesday, a total of 3,904,444 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Nevada, with an increase of 10,634 in the past day.
*NOTE: Daily lab data from DHHS and SNHD reports is updated every morning for the previous day.
TRACKING NV COUNTIES
July 6 was the first time since March 3 that Clark County had been flagged for elevated disease transmission (A county is flagged for elevated disease transmission if it meets two or three of the above criteria). In today’s report, Clark remains flagged, along with Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Eureka, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Storey, White Pine and Washoe counties.
Clark County’s case rate (1,009 per 100,000 over the past 30 days) and test positivity rate (15.3%) are flagged in data reported today. Testing (280 tests per day per 100,000) is within the state’s acceptable range.
VACCINATION UPDATE
The state’s health department reports 2,819,257 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Nevada, as of Aug. 17.
As of today, nearly 50% of Nevadans currently eligible for the vaccine are fully vaccinated, and 60% of the eligible population has initiated vaccinations. Clark County reports that nearly 49% of its eligible residents are fully vaccinated.
A BREAKDOWN OF NEVADA HOSPITALIZATIONS
NOTE: The state is not updating hospitalization data on weekends or holidays.
According to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the number of hospitalized patients in Nevada was DOWN in the past day.
The current number of hospitalizations is 1,217 confirmed/suspected cases. Hospitals reported 286 of those patients were in intensive care units, and 201 were on ventilators.
“Nevada is experiencing a slowing of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the southern region and increases within
the northern region. We remain cautiously optimistic that Nevada may be reaching the peak of the current
wave,” according to the most recent report from the Nevada Hospital Association (NHA).
However, NHA notes that “even as cases slow, historically, significant case counts remain within the hospitals for close to a month once the peak has been reached.”
The Nevada seven-day moving averages are beginning to flatten for confirmed and suspected COVID-19 hospitalizations, the organization stated in this week’s report. “This is being driven by the slowing admission rates in southern Nevada.”
“Hospitals report that 95%+/- of all patients hospitalized are unvaccinated. Hence, robust vaccination campaigns remain the best mitigation strategy,” the organization stated two weeks ago.
To give some perspective, the state set a record high for hospitalized patients on Dec. 13 with 2,025 cases.
RECOVERY CASES IN SOUTHERN NEVADA
The number of people who have recovered from the virus in Southern Nevada continues to increase. The latest county update estimates a total of 276,422 recovered cases; that’s 93.7% of all reported cases in the county, according to SNHD’s latest report.
The health district provides a daily map with the number of positive tests in each ZIP code in Clark County.
MITIGATION MEASURES IN NEVADA
Nevada reopened to 100% capacity on June 1 and social distancing guidelines lifted, helping the state return to mostly pre-pandemic times, with some exceptions.
The CDC reversed course on July 27, saying fully vaccinated Americans in areas with “substantial and high” transmission should wear masks indoors when in public as COVID-19 cases rise. Most of Nevada falls into those two risk categories.
Nevada said it would adopt the CDC’s guidance with the new mask guideline that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on July 30. This overrides Clark County’s employee mask mandate, which went into effect in mid-July.
On Aug. 16, Gov. Sisolak signed a new directive that allows fully vaccinated attendees at large gatherings to remove their masks, but only if the venue chooses to require everyone in attendance to provide proof of vaccination. Those who have just one shot and are not “fully vaccinated” would still be allowed to attend, as would children under 12, but both would need to wear masks.
Masks still must be worn when required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local businesses and workplace guidance.
SEE ALSO: Previous day’s report
