COVID test positivity rate goes under 19% in Nevada

Nevada’s COVID-19 test positivity rate over the past 14 days dipped to 18.6% Wednesday, said state COVID-19 Response Director Caleb Cage and Candice McDaniel, health bureau chief for the Bureau of Child, Family, and Community Wellness at the daily COVID update.

As of Wednesday, Nevada has logged 273,873 cases, with the 14-day rolling average of daily cases being 1,144. The state has completed a total of 2,445,386 molecular tests since the beginning of COVID-19, and the Nevada Hospital Associate reports there are 1,400 COVID-19 hospitalizations (1,307 confirmed; 93 suspected).

As of Tuesday, 194,930 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and reported to NV WebIZ. The federal government announced that day many states will be seeing an increase in allocation numbers for both Moderna and Pfizer. So far, the ordering system has shown the increase available for Moderna and are awaiting the system to update with the increased ordering ability for Pfizer.

The federal government said that states should be able to see allocations for up to three weeks at a time. This aligns with state calls for more predictability from the federal government, but the change is not yet reflected in the order system.

The state and counties are closely tracking when people are due for second doses and ordering each week exactly the number of second doses needed for both the Moderna and the Pfizer product. These second doses are allocated and earmarked for Nevada and are sitting on the shelves waiting for us to order them.

For Nevada, Cage and McDaniel said, it makes much more sense to have Moderna and Pfizer handle the storage for those second doses until the state is ready to order and use them. With second doses stored with the developers, there are fewer concerns with temperature excursions and other handling issues.

Also Tuesday, the state got verbal confirmation that states can begin to repurpose doses allocated to the federal pharmacy partners if they are not needed in that effort.

The long-term care and skilled nursing facilities will continue to vaccinate residents and staff held within the 670 identified facilities and uphold the structure of three offered visits. The state will continue to ensure that all the vulnerable populations living in these facilities are accounted for and that doses are available, but repurposing doses will help the state provide more doses to the senior and work force populations as part of the state’s playbook.

Information on county-by-county pharmacy participation and how to make an appointment is available on NVCOVIDFighter.org.