Nye County records 1 more death from virus as COVID-19 cases fall in Nevada

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations dropped over the past week throughout Nevada, new state data shows.

And the good news doesn’t stop there.

Hospitalizations for other respiratory viruses also are declining.

“Nevada continues to experience a rapid decline in the number of persons requiring hospitalization for respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, flu and RSV,” the Nevada Hospital Association said in a weekly report Wednesday.

RSV is respiratory syncytial virus.

The 14-day average for daily new COVID-19 cases in Pahrump was down to 12, data shows. An additional new case of COVID was confirmed in Beatty but the rest of the county showed no new cases, according to the data.

Data shows one person died in Nye County from COVID in the past two weeks, bringing the total death count here from the virus since the pandemic began to 305.

Statewide, new cases fell by 23 percent, to 188 from 245, according to data published Wednesday by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

Suspected and confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations statewide declined 25 percent, to 219 from the previous week’s 292.

Respiratory viruses generally have not stressed Nevada’s intensive care units in the past week, according to the hospital association. The exception would be pediatric intensive care units, which remain full.

Overall emergency room visits are declining, the association said. Eleven percent of visits were for COVID-19, and that percentage has been steadily declining.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that all counties in Nevada are experiencing low levels of COVID-19, as determined by case numbers and hospitalizations. Clark County and several other counties in the state had been at medium levels in recent weeks.

A new highly transmissible variant — XBB.1.5, or “kraken,” as it has been nicknamed — is gaining traction across the country. However, cases and hospitalizations generally are trending downward in the U.S., the most recent CDC data shows.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.

Brent Schanding contributed to this report.