Double-digit death toll holds
Figure reported Monday slightly tops average in 14-day period
Nevada logged 1,414 new coronavirus cases and 23 additional deaths Monday, according to state data.
The updated numbers from the state Department of Health and Human Services brought the state’s case total since the pandemic reached Nevada in early March to 233,032.
The death toll reached 3,206.
The number of new cases is about half of Sunday’s total of 2,747 and is slightly lower than the 14-day rolling average of 1,680 cases. The number of fatalities is above the daily average of 19 deaths per day over the same period.
Nevada’s two-week positivity rate, one of the key indicators that health officials monitor, decreased to 20 percent, down from 21.1 percent the previous day.
The number of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals increased by 50 over the preceding day to 1,879, the state data show.
The state is experiencing what the Nevada Hospital Association de
scribed as a “plateau” of COVID-19 hospitalizations.
In Southern Nevada, 80 percent of staffed hospital beds and 79 percent of intensive care beds were occupied, according to the association.
Nevada officials say public health labs and testing sites could soon face a possible post-holiday surge as people return from gatherings.
After lines outside testing centers in the Las Vegas area stretched for more than a mile on Monday morning, state COVID-19 response director Caleb Cage said the number of tests reported from a day earlier was slightly down. But he warned that demand for the tests could spike as people return from the holidays and settle back into their routines, a pattern the laboratories processing tests experienced after Thanksgiving.
Cage has long stressed the need to look at data over at least a 14-day period to account for daily fluctuations, including weekend testing and processing lags.
Clark County reported 1,140 new coronavirus cases and 11 deaths on Monday. The update brought the county’s case total to 176,731 and the death toll in the county to 2,424.