Official: Nevada's virus vaccine allotment is 'low, slow'

LAS VEGAS — Nevada has administered more than 137,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. But state coronavirus task force chief Caleb Cage said Friday that Nevada's vaccine allocation from the federal government has been "low, slow and weekly" and "is not enough to meet our needs or our capacity."

The health district in Southern Nevada, which includes Las Vegas and where three-quarters of the state's population lives, has the capacity to administer about 92,000 doses a week, Cage said.

But the entire state is only getting about 36,000 doses a week.

"Nationwide, nobody is happy with their allocation of course because everybody is feeling like they have more capacity to distribute doses," he said.

Cage said the state has no information yet about whether it will continue to get about 36,000 doses a week, as it has been for about five weeks, or if that is expected to increase soon. State officials have been pressing for more doses, enlisting the help of Nevada's representatives in Washington and making a case to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other avenues.

Cage said it appears the Biden administration's plan released earlier this week may mean a change in distribution levels and Nevada will do everything it can to press for more. But at the very least the state is expecting more weekly allotments in the future if more vaccines are approved for use by the federal government, he said.

"I'll tell you right now we're extremely encouraged by what I see as a unified and coherent national strategy to address not just vaccination but also COVID-19," Cage said of the Biden administration.

Nevada on Friday reported 1,869 new cases and 48 deaths from COVID-19. The state has seen a total of 268,212 cases and 3,958 deaths since the pandemic started.

The statewide test positivity rate, which has ticked slightly down every day for a week, was 19.9% Friday, health officials said. The figure is calculated as a 14-day rolling average.

The number of infections is thought to be higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

The Nevada Hospital Association reported Friday that 77% of staffed hospital beds were occupied and that the state was moving into the weekend with a downward trend of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Intensive care units in southern Nevada are still at a high occupancy, and several facilities were at near capacity, the association reported.

The virus has hammered Nevada's tourist-dependent economy. State officials Friday reported that new unemployment claims rose for the third week in a row. There were nearly a thousand new unemployment insurance claims filed in the week ending Jan. 16, a 10.1% increase from the previous week. Those are in addition to ongoing unemployment claims filed each week by workers.