Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak highlighted the State’s recent progress in efforts to battle COVID-19 in Nevada.
At the end of April, when announcing the Nevada United: Roadmap to Recovery plan, Gov. Sisolak laid out five criteria State officials would monitor as the State began a gradual, phased in reopening process.
Now, just over a month later, the governor is pleased to announce significant progress in all categories.
Goal 1: Downward Data Trend: Consistent and sustainable downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases and decrease in the trend of COVID-19 hospitalizations over a 14-day period.
- As of June 3, Nevada is on day 39 of a downward trajectory in positivity rate, with a cumulative test positivity rate of 5.7 percent, down from 12 percent on May 1.
- Nevada is well below the World Health Organization’s recommended standard of 10 percent.
Goal 2: Strengthen Healthcare Infrastructure: Ability to maintain hospital capacity without crisis standards of care
- As of June 3, Nevada’s confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on an overall downward trajectory since April 21, a total of 43 days.
- The Nevada Hospital Association is reporting that member hospitals are within normal supply of personal protective equipment, or PPE.
Goal 3: Testing Expansion: Expanded ability for healthcare providers to administer tests for symptomatic patients and sufficient laboratory capacity to process COVID-19 testing samples
- In the month of May, Nevada increased daily testing by 500 percent and Nevada has the testing and laboratory capacity to test all patients, regardless of whether they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or not.
- The Nevada Health Response website recently launched a testing locator map at NVHealthResponse.nv.gov to help Nevadans find a nearby testing location.
Goal 4: Case Contact Tracing: Sufficient public health workforce capacity in local and state health departments to conduct case contact tracing (detect, test, trace, isolate)
- On Monday, Nevada rolled out a comprehensive 32-page COVID-19 Disease Outbreak Management Plan to help bridge Nevada from the current crisis response to an enhanced disease management process.
- Nevada’s statewide contact tracing effort involves a digital tracing solution through Deloitte and Salesforce. This effort, supported by these national technology leaders, will modernize and streamline case investigation and contact tracing with increased staffing to quickly identify and notify individuals who may have been close contacts to a person with COVID-19.
Goal 5: Protect vulnerable populations: Sustained ability to protect vulnerable populations; outbreaks minimized in special settings like health facilities and nursing homes.
- Nevada is one of four states identified this week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as having inspected all nursing homes to make sure they’re meeting federal infection control standards.
- Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services remains ready and able to aggressively intervene when outbreaks are identified.
