Nevada coronavirus task force Director Caleb Cage said Monday that mobile vaccination units have arrived in Nevada.
He said those units will take the vaccines to rural and tribal communities around the state that are harder to reach than the urban centers, beginning with tribal communities in both the north and south.
Karissa Loper of the Health and Human Services Department said those units can vaccinate up to 250 people a day. They will be using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine that only requires a single shot.
Loper said to date 34.4 percent of Nevadans have received at least one shot and nearly 21 percent have completed the vaccination process.
She said 1.34 million doses have been administered statewide so far.
As of Monday, Cage said everyone aged 16 and up is eligible to receive a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is available for those 18 and older but not 16- and 17-year-olds.
Cage said the daily case rate is just 197 and there are just 292 people hospitalized with the virus. He said the 14-day rolling average positivity rate ticked up a tenth to 4.3 percent but that is still under the 5 percent the World Health Organization says is key.
He said his team begins meeting with local health officials next week to review their plans to take control of the recovery effective May 1.
As more people are vaccinated, the state is moving toward fully reopening. But Cage cautioned that now is not the time to let down the guard. He said the mask mandate remains in place; social distancing and sanitizing is important to keep the virus from surging again.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the virus spreads almost entirely through the air. CDC guidance says transmission by surface contact is possible but rare.
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