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KUNR Today: Washoe Reports Season's First Flu Death, Relief Coming For Reno Businesses

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Here are your local news headlines for the morning of Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.

Nevada's COVID-19 Response: State Heading In ‘Right Direction’
By Paul Boger

The state's two-week rolling average of new daily cases has seen sharp declines over the last month. In early January, Nevada was averaging nearly 2,300 new cases a day. Now, it's seeing fewer than 1,100.

When coupled with the dropping test positivity rate and decreasing hospitalizations, health officials say the state may officially be turning the corner on this latest wave of the pandemic.

“This is really the first time we've seen a sustained downward trajectory in this peak,” said Kyra Morgan, a biostatistician with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. “Our numbers are still high, they're still more than what we had seen in our summer wave, but they're significantly less than what we were experiencing in November.”

Despite the improvements, Nevada continues to see spikes in the number of daily deaths. The state reported 47 on Thursday.

Statewide, nearly 275,000 people have, so far, contracted the virus. Almost 4,200 have died.

The Washoe County Health District reported six COVID-19-related deaths and 120 new cases on Thursday. More than 12,000 cases remain active and 595 people have died as a result of COVID-19 since last March.

Carson City Health and Human Services reported no new deaths on Thursday. They also confirmed five times as many recoveries as new cases.

Washoe County Reports Season's First Flu Death
By Paul Boger

Washoe County has recorded its first flu-related death of the season this week. The man was in his 60's and had underlying health conditions.

He's the first person in Washoe County to die from the flu since December 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported fewer cases of influenza this season than in years past.

Health officials expect the flu season to run into May.

Help For Reno Businesses Coming

The Reno City Council has approved a business relief program aimed at helping merchants negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

This Is Reno reportsthe program will give those who qualify the ability to defer payment or limit business license fees through 2022.

The program is for any business ordered to close or operate with reduced capacity pursuant to state directives.

Business license fees generate about $20 million annually, or about four percent of the city's general fund.

Healthcare Workers Calling For Environmental Justice
By Savannah Maher, Mountain West News Bureau

Nurses in our region are calling on the Biden administration to address environmental inequalities in its COVID-19 response.

Chronic pollution exposure can make communities less resilient in the face of new health threats. That includes COVID-19, according to the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment.

Their call to action features testimony from healthcare workers in Montana, Colorado and New Mexico who say that many of the communities hit hardest by the pandemic are also victims of environmental inequality.

"We have wildfire exposure, oil and gas operations in the Permian basin," said Katherine Zychowski with the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, who contributed to the report. "We also have the abandoned mine sites out in Navajo Nation."

She said these types of pollutants lead to illnesses that put people at high risk for severe COVID-19.

The report calls for communities with high pollution exposure to be prioritized for COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and other response measures.

Thousands Of Nevadans Flood State Health Insurance Exchange
By Paul Boger

Nearly 82,000 Nevadans signed up for health insurance through the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange's most recent open enrollment period.

While it's not a record, it does represent a six-percent increase over the previous year. The growth was likely fueled by the pandemic, and with another open-enrollment period expected on the horizon, state officials say they expect the number of people purchasing insurance through the state-run health care exchange to only increase.

Paul Boger is a former reporter at KUNR Public Radio.
Savannah comes to Wyoming Public Media from NPR’s midday show Here & Now, where her work explored everything from Native peoples’ fraught relationship with American elections to the erosion of press freedoms for tribal media outlets. A proud citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, she’s excited to get to know the people of the Wind River reservation and dig into the stories that matter to them.