Starting next week the State's COVID-19 data dashboard will stop being updated daily. Instead it will be updated once a week on Wednesdays, with data current to the previous Monday. State public health officials say Tuesday will allow time for data processing.
"Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved over time the public health response has also evolved, in response to both changes in the virus and how we measure community and public health impacts. " said Melissa Peek-Bullock, the Nevada State Epidemiologist.
Online, the county tracker from the Nevada Health Response website https://nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/#covid-data-tracker will also be removed, as well as dashboard page specific o testing volume and test positivity rates.
Kyra Morgan, Chief Biostatistician, "The test positivity rate is really becoming obsolete for a number of reasons.The first is we all know we have an abundance of at-home test kits and those results are not necessarily reported anywhere. And we currently have a huge gap, a blind spot in our data regarding test positivity."
Morgan adds, test positivity is not something typically measured for other infectious diseases like the common cold or flu.
"COVID is becoming endemic, and by definition it means that it will persist in our community at some level." she said. "It just means that within that we'll have the tools we need to contain it to where it's not causing serious strain on our health cares system, serious mortalities that are affecting everyone's day to day lives."
On Thursday, March 10 Nevada reported 129 new COVID cases per day, the lowest rate since last year. Hospitalizations have also hit a new low since March of 2021, at 247 statewide.
