Washoe County is focusing on a “Mask On, Move On” campaign in a state-mandated mitigation effort as the county remains flagged for high disease transmission for six continuous weeks.
The Nevada Health Response team, tasked with COVID-19 mitigation efforts, reported there will be greater focus on education and spreading awareness. Local businesses and organizations like the school district, University of Nevada, Reno and the Chamber of Commerce will be involved in the effort.
These institutions will communicate the need to wear a mask and the importance of working together to prevent the virus from spreading. There is hope that if the community follows the Centers for Disease Control mandated health measures together, Washoe County and Nevada as a whole will be able to avoid further shutdowns.
Limitations on gatherings and having 50 people or fewer for all indoor and outdoor events remain in effect. Officials also said there will be increased enforcement by Washoe County, the City of Reno and City of Sparks in the coming days.
This will be a code enforcement responsibility, said district health’s Scott Oxarart. The effort will be on “making sure more inspections are being done,” by Reno, Sparks and Washoe County and that all inspections are consistent among jurisdictions.
Officials will also meet weekly with the state’s Department of Business and Industry to improve inspections and increase compliance.
An initiative “is still being planned” that targets zip codes with greater numbers of COVID-19 cases, Oxarart said.
To address complaints of comparatively slow lab results, county Health Officer Kevin Dick said they will work with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Nevada State Public Health Lab to make effective changes in lab testing reporting times, contact tracing and disease investigation measures.
“This includes finding ways to lessen the time for when someone’s results come back, and how the state can assist with contact tracing and disease investigation. This is still a work in progress,” Oxarart explained.
According to a community assessment, COVID-19 is widespread in Washoe County and is mostly occurring through community transmission that is not able to be tied back to known cases of infection. As of Nov. 3, the seven-day rolling average of new daily cases in Washoe County was 187, a 19% increase in new cases from the previous week.
Washoe County’s test positivity rate has increased over the past week from 9.1% to 10.8%. Tests have also been increasing in that time period. The county continues to see a significant increase in numbers of cases occurring in the 30-59-year-old age range, in addition to the 20-29-year-old ranges in the last several weeks.
Occupancy rates for hospital beds have been on the rise with a slight decrease on Thursday. Data from Nov. 5 show 55% of all Intensive Care Unit beds are occupied, 71% of all licensed hospital beds are occupied and 86 percent staffed hospital beds are occupied.
