Clark County reports most COVID cases in day since start of pandemic

Clark County reported 3,363 new cases on Friday, the highest number recorded in a single day in the county since the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020.

Updated figures from the Southern Nevada Health District pushed the total number of COVID-19 cases in the county to 369,414.

The daily figure was far higher than the seven-day moving average for new cases, which jumped to 1,306 per day. That was an increase of 431 over Thursday’s average.

No new deaths were reported from the disease caused by the new coronavirus first discovered in China in late 2019.

The state did not update its COVID-19 dashboard on Friday due to the New Year’s Eve holiday, so test positivity rate and hospitalization data for Clark County was not available.

New case numbers in the county and state have been increasing for nearly two months, but the trend has accelerated sharply over the past week due to the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and relaxed restrictions on public gatherings, state biostatistician Kyra Morgan said Thursday.

Given the rapid spread of omicron, especially in Southern Nevada health district officials urged people to observe safety measures if celebrating New Year’s Eve in groups or among crowds.

“If individuals choose to gather with people outside of their households to celebrate the new year, I urge them to take the precautions to protect themselves and others,” Dr. Fermin Leguen, health officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, said in a news release. “The best way to protect ourselves today is for everyone to be fully vaccinated and have received a booster dose of the vaccine if eligible, wear well-fitting masks when indoors and in crowded settings, wash your hands frequently, and most importantly stay home and away from others if they are sick.”

Neither the state Department of Health and Human Services nor the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their COVID-19 data on Friday. Both are expected to issue their next updates on Monday.

As of Thursday’s report, state totals stood at 484,641 cases and 8,407 deaths.

State data also showed that as of Thursday, 54.39 percent of eligible Nevadans 5 and older had been fully vaccinated, compared with 53.70 percent in Clark County.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at g[puit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.