Carson City now flagged for elevated risk of COVID-19 spread

Carson City has now joined the list of Nevada counties flagged as having a danger of increased virus transmission.

The updated county criteria tracker issued Monday morning says the capital joined the group, which now numbers eight counties, when its seven-day positivity rate climbed past 8 percent — even if only by a tenth.

Carson was already more than double the 200 cases per 100,000-population measure — 555. A county is flagged when it fails two of the three measures used to determine if a county is at risk of elevated disease transmission.

Washoe County is now in its fifth week on that list with 612 cases per 100,000 and a 9.1 percent positivity rate over the previous seven days.

The COVID Task Force will hold an emergency meeting Thursday with Washoe County officials to discuss ways to combat the increasing number of cases there. Cases in Washoe have been on the rise since Sept. 28 after initially decreasing. County Health Officer Kevin Dick at one point blamed parties hosted by returning UNR students as a significant cause of the increase, nothing that people in that age group were among the largest number of new cases.

He pointed out at that time that reopened bars weren’t the problem, that their compliance with safety rules was better than 80 percent.

The other counties on the list are Clark, Elko, Humboldt, Lincoln, Lyon and Nye counties.

Monday’s report included an increase of 475 cases, bringing the state’s total to 96,178.

Four of Nevada’s counties reported test positivity rates in double digits: Elko, Humboldt, Lincoln and Nye. Highest was Lincoln at 13.4 percent.

Esmeralda and Eureka counties are faring best in the pandemic. Those two counties reported no new cases in the past 30 days and zero positive tests.

Hospital occupancy rates are still under fairly good control with hospital occupancy at 72 percent and ICU beds at 60 percent. Just 25 percent of ventilators are in use for all patients COVID cases and all other conditions.