County surpasses 2K COVID deaths
For daily updates on the most important coronavirus data, go to Nevada reports 2,579 new cases, 9 deaths
Clark County reached a somber milestone Monday when three new coronavirus-related deaths pushed the county’s death toll beyond 2,000.
New data posted by the Southern Nevada Health District to its coronavirus webpage increased the death toll in the county to 2,002.
“This is a sad milestone and a vivid reminder that while we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel we must remain vigilant and continue doing the things that protect us and our friends and families,” Clark County Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “That means wearing masks, social distancing, washing your hands frequently, and getting tested if you were exposed to someone who has COVID.”
The county also reported 1,706 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 142,937 since the beginning of the pandemic in early March.
State officials, meanwhile, reported 2,579 new coronavirus cases and nine more deaths over the preceding day. The numbers posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services brought the statewide case total to 189,412. The state has reported 2,548 deaths.
The daily case number was well above Nevada’s 14-day rolling average of 2,185, according to data from the health department. The state is averaging 18 deaths per day over the same period.
The new numbers came a day after Gov. Steve Sisolak extended the state’s pandemic “pause,” and as Nevada received its first batch of a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The vaccine is not expected to immediately affect the record levels of COVID-19 the state has been experiencing of late, since it will take time to inoculate enough people to slow and eventually stop the spread of the
need to narrow it down as far as we can.”
The felony counts, which center on contaminated water at the school, represent each student enrolled at the academy between February 2018 and February 2019. The students ranged in age from 11 to 17, according to a criminal complaint.
Northwest Academy and its owners first made headlines in January 2019, after the Nye County Sheriff’s Office announced that it had opened an investigation into reports of abuse at the boarding school.
The Review-journal launched its own investigation into the school, and in May 2019 it published a four-part series titled “Deserted in the Desert,” which uncovered multi-agency failures in Nevada that allowed problems at the school to go unaddressed for more
than two years, including claims of child abuse and issues with its tap water.
Over the years, the newspaper’s investigation found, the school racked up dozens of violations from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection after the couple had stopped treating its tap water in October 2016, leading to high levels of arsenic and fluoride.
The former Northwest Academy campus, located along state Route 373 near Mecca Road, is now the site of Never Give Up, a youth residential psychiatric facility. In December 2019, about a year after the investigation was opened into Northwest Academy, the Sheriff’s Office announced that it was investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the new facility.