Douglas surpasses Lyon in active cases

Over the weekend, the number of active coronavirus cases in Douglas County surpassed those in Lyon County for the first time in the outbreak. A Douglas man in his 80s was reported Monday to be the seventh person to die from the virus, and the sixth since Nov. 4.

Carson City Health and Human Services reported 817 active cases in Douglas, with 582 recoveries.

Residents fought back by participating in community coronavirus testing. On Tuesday, 440 people turned out for asymptomatic testing at the East Fork Fire Station No 12 in Sunridge. The next testing is scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. Dec. 22 in Sunridge.

In a change of procedure, testers are only calling participants who test positive for the virus. Those who are negative are given a log-in to find out if they are negative.

The surge in positive results has been continuing steadily since a 264-case spike on Nov. 24.

“We may be seeing the impacts of the Thanksgiving holiday starting to appear in our numbers, but that is just speculation on my part,” Douglas County Emergency Manager Tod Carlini said on Monday. “While new cases have outpaced recoveries, remember at some point we should also start to see a larger number of recoveries as well based on statistical recovery data for individuals.”

Carson City, which has the largest number of active cases in the four-county region, added 232 positive cases from the Stewart Conservation Camp on Tuesday. They are asking the state not count numbers at the camp and prison against the capital.

On Monday, Carson-Tahoe Hospital reported functioning at or near daily capacity and has activated a surge plan, bringing in additional personnel.

Elective surgeries have been postponed as Nevada is recognized as the state with the highest number of hospitalizations per capita in the country.

The Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to meet today to determine whether to authorize the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and next week to discuss the Moderna vaccine.

Frontline clinical health workers and long-term care patients are the initial priority for the vaccine, followed by first responders.