The Washoe County Health District is reporting more than a thousand new COVID cases in the past week, the first time in awhile the county's seen a number that high.
On Tuesday, it reported 1,148 weekly new cases from May 31 through June 6. Health District officials say the amount of COVID cases have been increasing for more than a month. As of Tuesday, the county's seven day moving average increased from 133 new COVID cases per day to 166 new COVID cases per day. Officials say they expect the amount of cases in the community to be five to 10 times more than what's being reported, due to at-home test kits.
Kevin Dick, the health district officer said the area could see a surge in the future because of sub-variants. He specifically mentioned BA.4 and BA.5, which are two new Omicron variants that swept through South Africa.
"Those have been increasing in the U.S. so we're starting to see those in Washoe County and it's a possibility that we could be getting a surge in the future from those sub-variants as well." Dick said during a regular media briefing.
However, the district health officer said there are indications that the situation could improve if there were to be a surge.
"We have seen in the northeast area that was hit with the sub-variants of omicron before we were, they had been at higher levels and now they are declining. So I'm hopeful that we'll be moving through this and have a decline in levels. But I think we're going to continue moving up for awhile before that happens." he added.
There is some good news. The death rate remains low. The Washoe County COVID-19 Dashboard is showing zero new daily deaths for a 14 day moving average. However the hospitalization rate is increasing. 31 people in the county are in the hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 and the Nevada Hospital Association is reporting 83 percent of staffed hospital beds are occupied in the county.
Kevin Dick said, "Hospital admissions are at, I believe 7.1 admissions per 100,000 over a seven day period, and if that exceeds or hits 10 that would move us up to the CDC community level of high."
Currently the CDC Community Level is Medium, which means those at high-risk for severe disease need more protection and should be taking additional precautions to avoid catching the virus.
