Community Corner
Young People Comprise Bulk Of COVID-19 Cases In Southern Nevada
People ages 20 to 40 make up 40 percent of Southern Nevada's positive cases of COVID-19.
By Dana Gentry, The Nevada Current
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July 8, 2020
People ages 20 to 40 make up 40 percent of Southern Nevada’s positive cases of COVID-19, signaling a major shift in the demographics of the disease that is likely being exposed by expanded testing, officials say. Previous testing criteria focused on high-risk groups such as seniors.
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“It’s come down about 20 years,” University Medical Center CEO Mason Van Houweling said at a news conference Tuesday of the average age of those infected by the coronavirus.
Van Houweling said hospitals are seeing “an uptick in kids,” noting 3 percent of positive tests in Southern Nevada are age 10 and under. He said doctors are observing “neurological impairment” in young patients.
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Southern Nevada’s 4,750 hospital beds are 74 percent occupied, according to Van Houweling.
While 84 percent of Intensive Care Unit beds are occupied, only about a third are COVID patients.
Less than half of Southern Nevada’s ventilators are in use.
“I don’t feel comfortable moving forward to Phase Three at this point,” Clark County Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick said.
Kirkpatrick promised enforcement against businesses that are not complying with face covering and social distancing mandates. She said those “bad actors” are hurting the effort for everyone.
“We will be enforcing and it’s for public health so we can stay open,” she said.
Kirkpatrick noted Southern Nevada’s COVID transmission rate, among the nation’s highest at 1.7 per positive case, will get worse if the spread is not contained.
“For every one person who has the virus they are giving it to one and seven-tenths of a percent,” she said, warning that the rate could increase precipitously.
Kirkpatrick said government officials consulted with other states before reopening casinos to learn their plans.
“But we had to be the gold standard,” she said. “We are light years ahead of them.”
This story was originally published by the Nevada Current. For more stories from the Nevada Current, visit NevadaCurrent.com.