In Nevada, 8 out of 17 counties are flagged as having an elevated risk of COVID-19 transmission. Washoe County in particular has had an elevated risk for the past five weeks, longer than any other county.
During a press conference Wednesday, Governor Steve Sisolak said that the greatest challenge as of right now is balancing between protecting the health of Nevadans, and the need to protect the economy.
According to state health officials, new cases are being driven nationally by relatively small gatherings of families and friends, where people are more likely to let their guard down.
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump held a rally in Arizona where he said the country is, “rounding the turn,” in terms of coronavirus cases. That's not how Sisolak described the situation in Nevada.
“We are not rounding the corner,” said Governor Sisolak. “I don’t care who says it. We are not rounding the corner. You can see from the slides. Our cases are going up. Anyone that says to the contrary is just not telling the truth. Anyone who says to the contrary is lying. They’re trying to intentionally deceive people and have them let their guard down. We can not let that happen.”
The officials also advocated for Nevadans to download the Nevada contact tracing app, COVID Trace, which has assisted in identifying a quarter of Nevada’s COVID-19 cases.
Editor's Note: The image included in this story is a screenshot from YouTube of Governor Sisolak’s press conference on Wednesday, Oct. 28. View the video.
