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Nevada COVID-19 Response Director provides daily update

Coronavirus-confirmed healthcare workers can return to work without being testing negative
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Caleb Cage, Nevada COVID-19 Response Director and Julia Peek, Deputy Administrator of Community Health Services, provided updates on the ongoing COVID-19 response in Nevada during a daily teleconference with members of the media.

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This bulletin provides facts, figures, and informational items from the call.

SUMMARY:

• As of today, Nevada has logged 38,657 cases, an increase of 1,129 cases since yesterday. Of these new cases, 1,032 or 91.4% were in Clark County, with 69 (6.1%) in Washoe County. The other 28 (2.5%) were spread throughout the State.

• Nevada has now completed a total of 510,977 PCR tests since the beginning of COVID-19, an increase of 7,514 since yesterday.

• While these numbers represent an increased spread of COVID-19 in our community, our partners in Clark County have been working to target the communities that have been hit the hardest. They have been providing more testing in these areas, including setting up testing sites in some Clark County Schools. We know that targeted testing and contact tracing will help us find more positive cases early to help slow the spread.

• All of our labs report data through the online reporting system, but the Electronic Laboratory Reporting system has been experiencing processing issues due to volume. An update has gone live and we anticipate seeing the results of the system update tomorrow or Friday.

• The cumulative test positivity rate is 9.6%. The daily positivity rate is 21.1%.

• For the most recent 7-day period, cases are growing at a rate of 3.5%, or 1,170 new cases per day. For comparison, the growth rate for the 7-day period ending June 30 was 3.9%, or 644 new cases per day. The growth rate for the 7-day period ending May 31 was 1.4%, or 116 new cases per day.

• Nevada has 1,102 hospitalized COVID-19 patients as of yesterday, July 21, 2020. Statewide hospital occupancy rates are 75% while intensive care units (ICU) are at an occupancy rate of 67%. About 40% of the ventilators statewide are in use right now for all patients.

• For the second day in a row, we saw 28 new deaths reported. As mentioned yesterday, it is important to note that not all deaths occurred in one day. As the date of death is reported to the State, the graphs on the NV Health Response website are updated to reflect the date. We are actively working with our partners, particularly in Clark County, to create methods of more timely reporting.

• Since the State’s first case of COVID-19 through yesterday, we have identified 6,271 new COVID-19 cases (38,657) as a result of contact tracing. This represents 16% of the total to date.

• Contextually, this means that we were able to identify more than 6,000 people who may not have known they were exposed to a positive case, who were then able to get tested and get connected to resources.

• Contact tracers through the State’s contract with Deloitte are working 12 hours a day, seven days a week in Clark County, to complement state and county efforts.

-- Deloitte agents logged a total of 813 calls as of 8 PM PST on July 21. Of these calls, 105 were inbound and 708 were outbound.
-- Deloitte’s SMS (text) campaign resulted in 997 total SMS messages sent, with 531 unique outbound communications and a 77% response rate from unique contacts.

• The Nevada State Nursing Board has been working to fill staffing needs with CNA's and other skilled medical professionals from out of state. Directive 011, signed by the Governor on April 1, 2020, waived certain licensing requirements and provided exemptions to medical professionals so that they could come to Nevada and provide services in the State during the pandemic. The Nevada State Nursing Board has been proactive in addressing healthcare staffing challenges by working with staffing partners to fill any gaps that arise.

• Given the increase in numbers it is extremely important to social distance, wear a mask, not socialize in big groups, and maintain general hygiene and cleanliness.