Clark County reports 156 new COVID-19 cases, no deaths since FridayFree

Clark County recorded 156 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths since Friday, according to Clark County Public Health. The data released Monday included a new tally counting probable cases.

The new COVID-19 cases push the total number confirmed in the county to 19,996, according to Public Health data. The county recorded an average of 52 new cases a day in the three days since Friday, up from last week’s average rate of about 46 new cases a day.

No new deaths from COVID-19 have been reported since Friday, leaving the total at 245 to date. Deaths are added to the county’s total 10 to 12 days after they occur. Three deaths were reported last week.

The new statistic — probable cases — takes into account positive antigen tests, a second type of test for detecting COVID-19 infections that had been tracked by the Washington State Department of Health but not by Clark County Public Health. Antigen tests are often less expensive and provide results faster than the more common molecular or PCR tests, but antigen tests can be less accurate.

Public Health announced that it will continue to count only positive molecular tests as confirmed cases but will track positive antigen tests in a separate “probable” category.

The county reported 27 new probable cases Monday and a total of 747 probable cases to date.

The addition of antigen test data also changed how Public Health tracks active cases. Public Health said it will use both confirmed and probable cases for that calculation, putting the county’s total number of active cases at 406 as of Monday. It had been 311 on Friday, before the change was made.

There were 21 people hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 19 on Friday, and four people hospitalized awaiting test results, up from one on Friday, according to Public Health data.