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This is a breaking news story and will be updated throughout the day Saturday, August 8.This story is part of the Reno Gazette Journals essential COVID-19 coverage and is being provided for free.Pleaseconsidersubscribing to the RGJ to support our work.

2:30 p.m. Saturday

The number of positive cases of COVID-19 in Nevada increased by 886 from the day prior, to 55,419, the state Department of Health and Human Resources reported Saturday.

The death toll increased by 29; 949 Nevadans have lost their lives to the infectious respiratory disease.

An additional 12,133 tests were performed, for a total of 691,615. The daily positivity rate stands at 11.2%, and the cumulative positivity rate is 10.4 percent on Saturday.

Patients in hospitals statewide with confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 796, a decline of 40 from the previous report. Suspected cases in hospitals went down 19, to 180.

Across the state, 278 patients are in intensive care units, a decrease of 11.

Of the 55,419 total reported cases since the pandemic hit Nevada, 59% are between the ages of 20 and 49.

In Washoe County, the case total stood at 5,756 on Saturday, an increase of 41 from Friday. The death toll remained 118. Of the total cases, 1,155 are active, and 87 people are currently hospitalized with the disease.

Friday

Washoe Schools Principal Association President Don McHenry said Friday that the district is setting itself up to fail by opening schools on Aug. 17 amid so many unknowns about safety protocols and how things will work.

In an interview with the Reno Gazette Journal, McHenry said principals don't know for sure what staff are returning, who has been granted leave or distance learning positions and, in many cases, don't even know which students will show up.

"I would support the district taking a step back," McHenry said.

The school district on Friday evening sent out a statement that no principal has told administrators that schools are not ready to open, and none of them has asked for more time to prepare.

The district said it had spent many hours this past week meeting with principals and going over safety protocols.

"At no time during these many meetings has any principal indicated either formally or informally that they were unable to open our schools and would prefer more time to prepare to welcome back their students and staff members," the statement said.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE: WCSD, Principals Union chief at odds over readiness to reopen schools

Friday

The Washoe Education Association said teachers are calling for guidanceafter the district informed them that a custodian at Hunter Lake Elementary School tested positive for COVID-19.

The association is the union that represents more than 2,500 district teachers.

Teachers, who returned to school buildings this week, called the unionasking if they needed to get tested or were now under a mandatory quarantine.Some may have been in close contact with the employee. No students were in the school.

The school district said in a statement that it was aware of the staff member who tested positivefor COVID-19 and worked with the health district to follow all procedures.

READ THE FULL STORY: WCSD teachers asking for guidance after custodian tests positive for COVID-19

Friday

Eight of Nevada's 17 counties, including Washoe,have been flagged as having elevated disease transmission risk, requiring county officials to submit action plans to the state, the Nevada Health Response Team announced Friday.

Washoe, Clark, Elko, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln andNye counties as well as Carson City have met at least two of the criteria prompting additional action. The criteria include:

In all, nine counties failed to reach the minimum testing threshhold; seven surpassed the maximum number of cases; and seven exceeded the maximum positive test rate. Elko and Humboldt were the only counties that met all three criteria.

The eight flagged counties must provide to the state an assessment of their hospital capacity, testing capacity, access to personal protective equipment, case investigation and contact tracing plans, enforcement plans, and plans to protect vulnerable populations.

Friday

The Regional Information Center reported 88new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with no additional deaths reported.

Washoe County recorded the 88new cases of COVID-19 Thursday through 1,340tests. The single-day positive test rate was 6.6%, while the rolling seven-day positive test rate rose slightly to 7.0%.

Of the 1,175patients with active casesin Washoe County, 85are currently hospitalized, down threefrom yesterday. Seventy-fourpatients were reported to have recovered over the past day.

The share of intensive care unit beds in use dropped to 41%over the past day, a decrease of 16 percentage points. Sixteenpercent of available ventilators are currently in use, a drop of 4 percentage points.

Since the outbreak began, a total of 5,715Washoe County residents about 1 in 83residents have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Of those, 4,422have recovered, and 118have died. Overall, about 77.4% of county residents with the coronavirus have recovered.

Here are the rest of the latest COVID-19 numbers for Washoe County:

Friday

Century Summit Sierra is one of a handful of Cinemark theaters selected to reopen next week as part of a"test-and-learn process," the company announced Friday.

The test process will be "instrumental in defining the training, communication and implementation of all cleaning and sanitization protocols and new technology," the company said in a press release.

Movie theaters have been allowed to reopen in Nevada at 50% capacity since May 29 under Gov. Sisolak's Phase 2 reopening.

Cinemark's guidelinesfor reopening include:

Century Summit Sierra plans to reopen Friday, Aug. 14, with 21 total showingsof second-run films including Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, The Goonies, Jumanji: The Next Level, The Invisible Man, Beauty and the Beast and Ghostbusters. Ticket prices will be reduced to $5 for adults and $3 for children and seniors during the test program.

Movie theater chains have been reeling since the pandemic began, with AMC Theatres announcing the chain might not survive the fallout. Last month AMCscrapped plans for a mid-July reopening, instead delaying plans until August.

Friday

Nevada reported 20 more COVID-19 deaths on Friday, bringing the states total death toll up to 920 as of Aug. 6.

The state also saw 976 more confirmed cases for COVID-19 as its number of daily tests surged in the last two days. Nevada reported nearly 16,400 tests on Aug. 5 and almost 12,500 tests on Aug. 6, a marked increase over the fewer than3,000 tests reported on Aug. 4.

Nevada is on track to soon hit 55,000 confirmed cases for COVID-19 since the pandemic started. Hospitalizations saw some improvement, however, as the number of people hospitalized for the virus dropped by about 7%.

Clark County continued to account for the bulk of coronavirus cases in the state, as well as the highest incidence rate among all Nevada counties. Clarks nearly 47,000 confirmed cases account for more than 86% of all COVID-19 cases reported in the state to date. Its incidence numbers also cracked the 2,000 threshold with a case rate of 2,027 per 100,000 people.

Washoe came in second with 5,627 confirmed cases to date and an incidence rate of nearly 1,177 cases per 100,000 people.

The state reported 770 deaths in Clark and 118 in Washoe to date. Carson City has 330 total confirmed cases and eight deaths since the start of the pandemic. The states numbers can differ from the daily local numbers reported by the various counties.

The daily positivity rate, which tracks the share of COVID-19 tests that return with a positive result, was at 17.8 percent. The seven-day moving average dipped below 14% for the first time since July 3.

Here is a rundown of the latest COVID-19 numbers for Nevada:

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COVID-19 live updates: 886 cases and 29 deaths reported Saturday in Nevada - Reno Gazette-Journal