Clark County Public Health reported five new deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday morning, one of the highest daily numbers of COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic arrived in the county in March.
There have been seven confirmed and suspected deaths in total in the past two days.
Public Health also confirmed 97 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, meaning that Clark County will end 2020 with a total of 12,912 cases of COVID-19 and 144 confirmed and suspected deaths. Hundreds were also hospitalized this year.
As of Thursday morning, there were 67 people hospitalized and five others hospitalized awaiting the results of the COVID-19 test. That number jumped 15 out of 52 patients on Wednesday. The county has seen recent declines in the overall case count, but there are still concerns about spike cases at the Christmas and New Year holidays.
The high numbers of hospitalizations may also herald the rise in the death toll in the coming days and weeks, similar to Thursday’s influx.
All five people who died on Thursday had underlying diseases. Two of the deaths were women aged 70 and over; two of the deaths were women aged 80 and over; one of the deaths was a man aged 80 or over. Four of the deaths were confirmed and one was a suspected death, which means that COVID-19 is not listed as a contributing factor on the death certificate, but has not been discarded and that the person died after a positive test for COVID in the last 28 days.
There are 650 active COVID-19 cases on Thursday morning.
Due to the New Year’s holiday, Public Health will no longer report updates on COVID-19 until Monday.