Clark County closes 2020 with five new COVID-19 deathsFree

Clark County Public Health reported five new COVID-19 deaths Thursday morning, one of its higher daily COVID-19 death tolls since the pandemic arrived in the county in March.

There have been seven total confirmed and suspected deaths in the last two days.

Public Health also confirmed 97 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, which means Clark County will finish 2020 with 12,912 total COVID-19 cases and 144 confirmed and suspected deaths. Hundreds have been hospitalized this year as well.

As of Thursday morning, there were 67 people hospitalized and another five hospitalized people awaiting COVID-19 test results. That number jumped up by 15, from 52 patients Wednesday. The county has seen recent decreases in overall case counts, but there are still worries about spikes in cases from Christmas and New Year’s gatherings.

The high hospitalization numbers could also portend increasing death tallies in the coming days and weeks, similar to Thursday’s influx.

The five people who died Thursday all had underlying conditions. Two of the deaths were women 70 and older; two of the deaths were women 80 and older; one of the deaths was a man 80 or older. Four of the deaths were confirmed and one was a suspected death, meaning COVID-19 is not listed as contributing factor on death certificate, but wasn’t ruled out and that the person died after testing positive for COVID within the last 28 days.

There are 650 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday morning.

Due to the New Year holiday, Public Health will not report any more COVID-19 updates until Monday.