County adds 97 COVID-19 cases but no more deaths

Clark County recorded 97 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths in the preceding 24 hours, according to data posted Monday by the Southern Nevada Health District.

The new cases brought the total for the county to 5,463, while the death toll remained at 296.

The district estimates that 4,055 of those patients have recovered.

The number of new cases was slightly above the average of 88 over the preceding week, but the hospitalization rate dating from the beginning of the outbreak in the state in early March registered its 10th straight decline to reach 21.38 percent, meaning that just over one in five of those who tested positive were hospitalized (excluding deaths).

The hospitalization rate is likely still artificially high, as until recent weeks only the seriously ill were able to be tested due to a shortage of testing supplies. But it has been declining steadily since a one-day spike on May 5 raised it to 23.50 percent.

Public health experts say the rate should continue to decline as more people with mild to moderate symptoms — or even no symptoms — are tested

that ends June 30 is $741 million to $911 million stemming from the COVID-19 economic shutdown.

Republican lawmakers who voiced their concerns against transferring the full contents of the rainy day account called for more oversight and said they would have supported transferring a portion of the funds.

“We need to know what the plan is before we start moving money around,” Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, R-minden, said.

But splitting the funds across multiple transfers would only delay the inevitable, committee chair Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-las Vegas, said.

“We know we’re going to need it,” Carlton said. “Splitting it in two doesn’t serve any purpose other than to slow it down.”

Some, including Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-eureka, also suggested using the state’s portion of the $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief dollars, or about $800 million, to make payments due by the end of the month.

Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson, D-las Vegas, said the money was put

into the rainy day fund for this type of situation.

“For somebody living month to month, they don’t go get a payday loan when they have money in their savings account,” Frierson said.

The committee is set to meet again Thursday, when they could vote to create a subcommittee that would oversee and make recommendations on how to use the coronavirus federal relief funds.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @Coltonlochhead on Twitter.