Nevada reported over 3,000 for the first time on Wednesday as travel ramps up across the country during the holiday season.
The state reported 3,159 new COVID-19 cases on its online tracker with Nye County logging 15 new positives and three additional deaths. Nevada is now tracking 142,239 cases since the health crisis began in early 2020.
According to the state, “Carson City Health and Human Services’ quad-county region made the decision to report all positive cases received in the past week. Meaning, they are reporting all positives prior to contact and case investigation, to relieve the backlogged Electronic Lab Reporting (ELR) queue. This drastically affected numbers being reported today.”
For context on the number of cases that occurred in the state, “Of all COVID-19 cases in Nevada: 10% occurred in just the last seven days. 25% occurred in the month of November and 48% occurred since September.”
The test positivity rate, a better indicator of the trend of the outbreak, in Nevada, was 16.5%. The rate has been on the rise since the end of September and has steadily climbed from just over 6% to where it was on Wednesday. In recent weeks, Nevada has seen record-breaking positivity rates, surpassing April 24’s 14.7% record in mid-November.
The bulk of the new cases logged on Wednesday were logged in neighboring Clark County and in Northern Nevada in Washoe County.
In Nye, 1,193 cases had been tracked by the county since the first case in mid-March in Beatty. Nye County has seen 115 cases in the past seven days with five of the 27 COVID-19-related deaths occurring within that same period. The state has tracked 2,071 deaths due to COVID-19 since the start of the health crisis.
Esmeralda County also saw an outbreak earlier this month with a poll worker. As of Wednesday, the county has reported nine total cases, state data shows.
Hospitalizations were at an all-time high on Wednesday with 1,414 suspected and confirmed cases in Nevada hospitals.
Updated at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
Contact Interim Editor Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com On Twitter: @pvtimes