COVID-19 IN NEVADA
More than 1,100 cases of the coronavirus were reported in Nevada on Wednesday, as the number of deaths tied Tuesday’s official state count — the largest increase of daily reported deaths since the start of the pandemic.
According to data from the De
partment of Health and Human Services, 28 additional deaths again were reported as the official number across Nevada on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 704.
However, due to differing reporting cycles between state and local health agencies, the daily recorded deaths were slightly different — at 31 on Tuesday and 25 on Wednesday.
Of those 25 deaths reported by local agencies, 24 occurred in Clark County, according to data from the Southern Nevada Health District.
The discrepancy comes from three deaths reported by Washoe County on Tuesday afternoon but not recorded in Tuesday’s total from the state health department.
The reporting delays by state and county health agencies make it unclear when the 25 new deaths recorded locally on Wednesday occurred.
Additionally, a count of the number of deaths from local and county agencies shows that 705 people have died across Nevada. That discrepancy comes from Nye County, which was reporting six deaths, while the state showed only five in the county.
The fifth and sixth deaths in Nye County were both reported on Monday,
and county spokesman Arnold Knightly confirmed on Wednesday that the total was accurate.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services data, an additional 1,129 cases were reported across Nevada on Wednesday, raising the total cases in the state to 38,657. The totals from local agencies put the count a bit higher, at 38,661.
Tuesday saw the largest number of deaths reported in a single day across Nevada, with the official count from the Department of Health and Human Services at 28 additional deaths.
Wednesday also marked the third day in a row that Nevada reported the highest number of combined suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state since the start of the pandemic, with an additional seven hospitalizations since Tuesday’s data. The number of combined and suspected hospitalizations on Wednesday stood at 1,102, according to state data.
Both the state and Southern Nevada Health District also redistribute new cases and death data after daily announcements in an attempt to show when a patient started experiencing symptoms or when a death occurred.
The county data also comes with a disclaimer that daily totals may be skewed when a large number of laboratory tests are reported late.
In Clark County, an additional 1,032 cases were reported on Wednesday, bringing the county total to 33,057, according to data from the Southern Nevada Health District. The death total in the county was at 577 on Wednesday.
An estimated 23,401 people in Clark County have recovered from the virus, according to the health district.
The statewide infection rate on Wednesday continued to climb, reaching 9.63 percent, according to the state data. Experts consider the rate — the number of cases divided by the number of people who have been tested — a better indicator of the outbreak trends in Nevada than new cases.
The rate had been declining for more than two months before hitting a low of 5.20 percent on June 17. It has risen every day but one since then.
As of Wednesday, 401,440 people in Nevada have been tested for the virus, according to the state health department.