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COVID-19 cases in Washoe County have plateaued, but health officials say decline is possible with ‘responsible’ social distancing

Megan Messerly
Megan Messerly
CoronavirusIndyBlog
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Washoe County building sign

Washoe County Health District officials acknowledged during a weekly press call on Wednesday that the number of new COVID-19 cases is not declining but rather plateauing as the state has started to reopen portions of its economy.

Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick urged caution as the state plans to enter Phase 2 of its reopening plan on Friday, though he said he supported Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decision to move the state forward in reopening its economy. He said that he believes that it is possible for the number of new cases to decline even as the state reopens his economy if people follow social distancing measures as they re-enter public spaces.

“It’s important for our community to understand that means that we still have COVID-19 out in the community. We do have spread that’s occurring,” Dick said. “As we’re increasing activities, it’s very important for people to take all of the precautions that we’re recommending in order to prevent us from having that plateau that we’re on turn into an upward trend. We need to be vigilant and, if we work really hard, I think we can have our economy open and we can have a further reduction in cases from people being responsible and doing their part.”

Dick said that there is “of course” a concern that there could be another surge of COVID-19 cases, like the one seen in April, and noted that the health district and state health officials are watching the numbers closely.

“If we see things start moving in the wrong direction the governor has assured us that he will step back with his approach,” Dick said. “There’s not an easy answer to what’s the best thing to do.”

In an effort to better understand the true rate of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the county and test their contact tracing infrastructure, Washoe health district officials have announced that asymptomatic individuals will be able to be tested for the novel coronavirus at the county’s drive-through testing site from June 1 to 6 between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m., by appointment. 

Health district officials also urged residents who were invited by mail to participate in an antibody study by the health district and the University of Nevada, Reno to respond to those letters to receive free COVID-19 testing. The results will help the health district determine how widely the virus has spread undetected throughout the county.

During the press call, Washoe County election officials also provided an update on the June 9, mostly-mail primary election. Election officials announced that 40,000 mail-in ballots have been returned to the county, or about a 14 percent voter turnout rate; they expect to continue to receive 2,000 to 3,000 ballots per day, with an increasing number of ballots the closer it gets to Election Day.

Washoe County election officials also said they expect results to be posted online earlier than they would on the night of the election because they don’t have to wait for results to be driven in from more than 80 different polling sites. However, Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Wayne Thorley noted that the results that are reported on Election Night will be incomplete, as election officials statewide must still count ballots postmarked by June 9 received in the seven days after the election. Only once those ballots have been counted will the results of the election be declared official, he said.

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