Clark County reports 128 new COVID-19 cases as surge recedes

Clark County on Thursday reported 128 new coronavirus cases, the lowest single-day increase in nearly eight months.

That number was the lowest single-day report since June 20, when the county reported 117 new cases just before the delta surge began. That surge ultimately led to the re-institution of an indoor mask mandate, which was lifted last week by Gov. Steve Sisolak.

The county also reported 33 deaths, pushing totals posted by the Southern Nevada Health District to 485,534 cases and 7,319 deaths.

Thursday was yet another day where the county and state reported a very low number of new cases, just a month after the state was routinely reporting thousands of new cases a day. But the surge, driven by the omicron variant, has fallen almost as quickly as it rose in the first place.

Omicron still accounts for 100 percent of COVID-19 cases in Nevada, according to data from the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory.

The two-week moving average of daily new cases dropped again, from 409 on Wednesday to 366. The two-week moving average of daily fatalities held steady at nine.

Of the county’s other closely watched metrics, the 14-day test positivity rate declined 1.2 percentage points to 15.7 percent, while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 dropped to 587, from 669 on Wednesday.

Hospitalizations and deaths often follow other metrics during a surge, and county health officials have stressed that those numbers are expected to remain higher than the case rate and test positivity rate as the surge recedes.

Meanwhile, the state reported 247 new COVID-19 cases and 43 deaths, bringing totals posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services to 641,446 cases and 9,489 deaths.

New cases were well below the two-week moving average, which declined from 659 on Wednesday to 590. The two-week moving average of daily deaths held steady at 11.

State and county health agencies often redistribute daily data after it is reported to better reflect the date of death or onset of symptoms, which is why the moving-average trend lines frequently differ from daily reports and are considered better indicators of the direction of the outbreak.

The state’s 14-day test positivity rate declined by 1.2 percentage points to 17.9 percent, while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 decreased by 106, to 741.

As of Thursday, state data showed that 56.34 percent of Nevadans five and older were fully vaccinated, compared with 55.72 percent in Clark County.

That number fluctuates widely throughout the state. Carson City and Washoe County are tied for the state’s highest vaccination rate, at 64.58 percent, while Storey County has the lowest, at 24.22 percent.

Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.