Sisolak: Not seeing evidence Nevada COVID-19 cases are leveling off

Gov. Steve Sisolak said Wednesday he is still awaiting for signs that the rate of COVID infections is leveling off in Nevada.

“We’re not currently experiencing a significant downtrend in those numbers,” he said. “To be blunt, our state is surging and continues to surge. We are currently exploring all mitigation options available.”

He said the restrictions he announced a week ago will only work if people follow them — including wearing masks, avoiding gatherings and social distancing.

Sisolak emphasized that he does not want to again shut down the economy if he can avoid it but that depends on Nevadans following the rules.

“There are some people who still feel there is a conspiracy but the election is over,” he said. “We’ve got to get by that.”

He said he will be watching Thursday’s weekly task force briefing as several counties present their latest information and ideas to control the spread of the virus — including Carson City.

On the positive side, he said there are now two vaccines that show great promise in the pipeline and that, “hopefully, we get those vaccines in our hands fairly quickly.”

“There’s a light at the end of this tunnel,” he said

Caleb Cage, head of the Coronavirus Task Force, said the positivity rate is 15.6 percent and 1,246 people are hospitalized with either a confirmed infection or suspected infection. He said Washoe and Clark counties are responsible for over 90 percent of the infections – 98,930 in Clark and 19,132 in Washoe.

The other cluster is at Carson City’s Warm Springs Prison where more than 420 inmates and 25 staff members are positive for the virus. Because of the outbreak at the prison, Carson’s positivity rate is 20.8 percent with a total of 1,479 cases.