Clark County reported 171 new COVID-19 cases and one death Wednesday as testing data from late October showed the beginning of the pandemic’s fall surge.
The new fatality was a man in his 60s with underlying health conditions, according to Clark County Public Health. His death is the third reported this week, following six deaths last week. It brings the death toll from COVID-19 in Clark County to 83 to date.
The new cases, which bring the county’s tally of COVID-19 cases to 6,918, show a continuing surge in disease activity. There have been 758 new cases reported since Friday — an average of about 152 new cases a day, up from 119 a day last week.
The beginning of the surge could be seen in COVID-19 test results updated Wednesday. Those results, which are provided by the state lag behind other statistics, show the percent of positive COVID-19 tests rose to 8.24 percent in the week of Oct. 25-31 at a time when the county was averaging about 56 new cases per day.
The positivity rate had fallen to as low as 3.57 percent in late September before steadily increasing each week.
COVID-19 testing
| Date range |
Positive tests |
Total tests |
Percent positive |
| To date* |
5,095 |
139,822 |
3.64% |
| Sept. 20-26 |
246 |
6,532 |
3.77% |
| Sept. 27-Oct. 3 |
243 |
6,808 |
3.57% |
| Oct. 4-10 |
311 |
7,022 |
4.43% |
| Oct. 11-17 |
307 |
5,453 |
5.63% |
| Oct. 18-24 |
344 |
4,860 |
7.08% |
| Oct. 25-31 |
420 |
5,100 |
8.24% |
There were 486 people with COVID-19 still in their isolation period Wednesday, up from 469 the day before, according to Public Health data.
There are 56 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Clark County as of Wednesday and another eight people hospitalized awaiting test results. The percentage of occupied hospital beds (75.2 percent) and ICU beds (73.4 percent) has varied only slightly in the past few days.
Data from Clark County Public Health shows that people in their 20s continue to represent the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in the seven days ending Tuesday, with 21 percent of all new cases, followed by people in their 40s (20 percent), 30s (17 percent), 50s (14 percent), 60s (11 percent), age 10-19 (8 percent), under 10 (4 percent), 70s (4 percent) and age 80 or older (2 percent).
COVID-19 confirmed cases
| Age |
Cases |
Rate per 100,000 |
| 0-9 years |
246 |
409.1 |
| 10-19 years |
597 |
906.8 |
| 20-29 years |
1,309 |
2,283.2 |
| 30-39 years |
1,140 |
1,827.9 |
| 40-49 years |
1,106 |
1,738.1 |
| 50-59 years |
895 |
1,386.9 |
| 60-69 years |
609 |
1,010.0 |
| 70-79 years |
335 |
912.0 |
| 80 and older |
233 |
1,321.3 |
| Total |
6,470 |
1,324.5 |
The largest week-over-week increase in cases was among people in their 60s, with 90 new cases in the seven days ending Tuesday, up from 44 the week before.
