Washoe County's case count of COVID-19 continues to drop, nearly six weeks after the Omicron surge peaked. The Washoe County Health District is reporting 23 daily new cases. That brings the seven-day average down to 39.4 daily new cases. That is the lowest since July 18.

"It's fantastic to see the numbers move so quickly and for us to get to those low levels," Kevin Dick, Washoe County Health District Officer said.

Washoe County had a single-day record high of 1,702 daily new cases on January 20. Two days later, the seven-day average reached an all-time high of 1,178. The new numbers are lower than they were before the Delta surge hit, last September. That is also driving down testing demand at the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center. Just 10 people signed up for a COVID test at the county's site, Wednesday. The low demand requires fewer people to test but it could take time to increase staff if demand goes up.

"We're not able to move from very, very low levels of demand for testing to meeting a huge demand if we have a surge in our community," Dick said.

The county's test positivity rate is down to 11 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It had reached about 42 percent at one point.

"I don't know if we're going to continue to see that positivity rate decline or not because we're not capturing all of the at-home testing," Dick said.

The Nevada Hospital Association says only 27 COVID patients are admitted in Washoe County's hospitals but staffed are still 86 percent occupied.

"That's one of the lowest figures we've seen in a long time," Dick said. "The hospitals, though, continue to be strained because of their difficulties with staffing."

Fewer people in the hospital means fewer deaths. WCHD is reporting 118 COVID-related deaths in 2022 but only two have died during the last two weeks.

"Now that we're coming down so steeply off the backside of the surge and we're seeing the decline in hospitalization rates, we expect to see those death rates continue to go down," Dick said.

The numbers are dropping as Nevadans receive more tools to fight the pandemic. Nearly 75 percent of the county's eligible population has initiated the COVID vaccination process. There are also free at-home test kits available, as well as free antiviral pills and monoclonal antibodies.

"Primarily, right now, with a limited supply for those that are at serious risk of becoming severely ill with COVID-19 but we expect that supply is going to ramp up," Dick said.

Dick is urging residents to get some at-home COVID-19 test kits for future use.

"Get some of those. Keep them in your medicine cabinet, so that if you're symptomatic, you can test yourself," Dick said.

The Truckee Meadows COVID-19 Risk Meter is still in the high level. Dick says that is because of the positivity rate and hospital capacity. 

"We're looking at whether that risk meter can be adjusted to work well or whether we just go with the CDC's stuff," Dick said.

The risk meter was created in the earlier days of the pandemic before the vaccines were available. The CDC has new criteria to determine COVID-19 community levels. The three categories are low, medium and high. Washoe County is in the medium range.

Link to find out where to get an at-home test: https://nvhealthresponse.nv.gov/find-covid-19-testing-in-nevada/