State has 813 new COVID-19 cases, 2 deaths

Washoe County hits record occurrences

State officials reported 813 new coronavirus cases in Nevada on Friday, according to state data, while Washoe County reported a record number of new cases on Friday night.

The number of cases in Nevada reached 93,666, and the number of cumulative deaths in Nevada rose by two on Friday, reaching 1,738 deaths, according to state data.

However, the Southern Nevada Health District reported six additional deaths, but the cumulative number of deaths for the county did not change from Thursday’s figure of 1,488 because the health district also re-categorized six previous deaths.

The six previous deaths were subtracted from the county total based on a new COVID-19 surveillance death definition finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services as of Monday, the health district said in a statement.

The health department said the six deaths were removed because they were not ruled natural deaths.

The cumulative statewide deaths in Nevada rose because of two deaths reported in Lander County, state data shows.

Washoe County on Friday evening reported one coronavirus death and 350 additional cases, which is the highest number of cases reported in a single day for the county. Because Washoe County reports its numbers in the evening, the cases are counted in the following day’s state total, which is usually when the Review-journal reports the figures.

Totals for Washoe rose to 12,304 cases and 190 deaths as of Friday evening.

The previous record number of

daily cases in Washoe was 179, reported on July 30. Earlier this month, the county almost beat the record when 178 cases were reported on Oct. 14.

The state’s positivity rate, calculated by the Review-journal as the number of cases divided by the total number of people who have been tested, remained at 12 percent. The percentage has been slowly rising since mid-september, when daily reports of new cases also started rising.

The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period, which remained unchanged from Thursday’s figure of 9.6 percent, state data shows. The rate is calculated using total “testing encounters,” which produces lower percentages because the figure includes people who received multiple tests at different points during the pandemic.

In Clark County, the Southern Nevada Health District reported 609 additional cases on Friday, raising the total cases in the county to 77,426.

According to the department, the state categorizes a confirmed COVID-19 death as someone who:

■ had a positive coronavirus test within 30 days of the death.

■ had a death certificate that lists COVID-19 as a main cause of death.

■ had a pending cause of death, but had a positive test within 30 days of the death and showed COVID-19 symptoms.

■ had a death certificate that does not specifically list a COVID-19 related term, but who had a positive test within 30 days of the death, and/ or died within 30 days of symptom onset. The person’s death must also be ruled “natural.”