Las Vegas, NV (AP) - Health officials in Las Vegas marked a tragic milestone Wednesday, passing 5,000 deaths from COVID-19 since March 2020 in Clark County.
Meanwhile in the Reno area, where 707 people have died of COVID-19, officials pointed with alarm to a more than threefold increase in the number already this month compared with June and July.
“Our numbers are really looking frighteningly similar to what we were seeing last year as we were entering our November surge,” said Kevin Dick, chief health officer in Washoe County, where a regional COVID-19 risk meter rated “very high,” one notch below “severe.”
In Las Vegas, Southern Nevada Health District medical chief Dr. Fermin Leguen issued a statement calling the 5,005 deaths in his region “a tragedy for everyone who has lost a loved one, family member and friend” and again pleaded for people to get free vaccine shots.
The vaccination rate in the Las Vegas area continued to tick slowly up on Wednesday, according to state health data, approaching 61% for people ages 12 and older who have received at least one dose and nearly 49% fully inoculated. Nationally, the figure is about 72%.
A weekly Nevada Hospital Association report noted that nine Las Vegas-area facilities were reporting staffing shortages but said the percentage of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and in intensive care in the south had stabilized at almost 1,200.