COVID numbers continue to rise slightly but officials say not a surge at this point

Nevada’s coronavirus numbers continued to rise through the past week but state officials say those numbers are still well within what they expected.

In other words, it’s not a surge.

Asked about reports out of state residents are getting vaccinated in Nevada, Task Force Director Caleb Cage said that’s true. But he said it’s legitimate because many of those non-Nevadans getting shots are Nevada workers who live just across the border out of state and many of those are health care workers who were a top priority to get vaccinated. A total of 57,747 doses have been administered to people who don’t have a Nevada address.

He said the goal is to get everyone vaccinated, not just those with a Nevada address.

As of Monday, he said the average daily caseload was at 277 and the positivity rate at 5.9 percent with 404 people hospitalized from the virus.

Karissa Loper, who is managing the vaccination program in Nevada, said as of Monday, 1,690,704 doses had been administered, meaning 42 percent of the population has begun the process and 28 percent of Nevadans have completed their shots.

Asked about reports more young children are testing positive now, Loper said there is a “slight increase” in cases among the young. But she attributed that to the fact that many more older people and adults have now been vaccinated.

“As you vaccinate the older population, you take cases away from one age group, you can expect cases to go up in other age groups,” she said.