Nevada sees largest single-day total in new COVID cases since mid-July

Nevada on Thursday reported the highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases since mid-July, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

There were 1,267 additional coronavirus cases reported on Thursday, along with 10 new fatalities, according to the state health department’s coronavirus website. That’s the highest single-day increase in new cases since 1,288 were reported on July 19.

Related: Latest COVID data from Nevada

Totals for the state reached 105,360 cases and 1,824 deaths, state data shows.

For more than two months the state had not reported more than 1,000 new cases in a single day, but that changed when 1,146 cases were reported Oct. 24. Since then, there have been five days when more than 1,000 new cases have been reported, including Thursday’s figure, state data shows.

The number of new cases has been rising since mid-September, when the state’s positivity rate also started to increase. Aside from a spike of 23 additional deaths reported Tuesday, the number of deaths, a disease indicator that lags a month or more behind new cases, has been trending downward since mid-August.

The positivity rate, calculated by the Review-Journal as the number of total cases divided by total people tested, increased by 0.06 percentage points on Thursday to reach 12.7 percent, state data shows.

The health department calculates a positivity rate over a two-week period, and it increased by 0.5 percentage points to reach 11.7 percent on Thursday.

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, there were 769 additional cases reported Thursday, along with six more deaths, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.

Updated figures posted to the county health district’s website brought totals for Clark County to 85,641 cases and 1,551 deaths.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.