County virus caseload dips; positivity up

Clark County reported a decline in new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, but a jump in its test positivity rate pushed the county further from exiting Gov. Steve Sisolak’s mask mandate.

Updated figures posted by the Southern Nevada Health District showed 456 new cases and seven deaths during the preceding day, bringing county totals to 335,869 cases and 6,036 deaths.

New cases were well above the two-week moving average of 335 per day, which nonetheless decreased from the 341 reported Monday. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities in the county was unchanged at three.

The number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in the county increased by seven, to 516.

The county recorded a positive rate of 6.1 percent on test results for the disease, according to data from the state Department of Health and Human Services, up from 5.9 percent on Monday. That translated to 9.08 percent using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s preferred seven-day rate, putting the county back into the “substantial” transmission rate category in the CDC’S four-tier rating system.

It was also the biggest one-day jump in test positivity rate by percentage that the county has reported since mid-july, when the rate was in double digits and on the rise.

More concerning is the county’s case rate, which stood at 121.45 cases per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday afternoon, up from a low of 92.69 cases of the disease per 100,000 on Nov. 1. That places the county in the CDC’S “high” transmission risk category.

For a county to exit the state mask mandate for crowded indoor public spaces, it needs to record a seven-day average case rate under 50 per 100,000 residents and a test positivity under 8 percent — both considered as posing a “moderate” risk of transmission by the CDC — for two consecutive weeks.

State officials on Tuesday announced that the entire state would remain under the mask mandate. Esmeralda County, which had exited the mask mandate, has now been in the “high” transmission tier for two weeks and will be required to mask up starting Friday.

All of the state’s 17 counties are in the “high” transmission tier, according to CDC data.

All four key COVID-19 metrics for the county have been falling fairly steadily since mid- to late August and are well below the levels seen during the summer surge of the disease in the state.

But some concerning signs have emerged since the beginning of November, with new cases and test positivity rate rising slightly.

The state, meanwhile, reported 739 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths during the preceding day. That brought totals for the Silver State to 445,879 cases and 7,778 deaths.

Nevada’s 14-day moving average of new cases decreased to 509 per day from 526 on Tuesday. The two-week average for fatalities held steady at five per day.