Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Many Clark County ZIP codes with high COVID-19 rates also more populous

Testing at UNLV School of Medicine

John Locher / AP

A health care worker with the UNLV School of Medicine tests a patient for the coronavirus at a drive-thru testing site Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Las Vegas.

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The Southern Nevada Health District has released data on the number of COVID-19 cases in each zip code in Clark County.

As of Tuesday, there have been 2,509 COVID-19 patients across Clark County, but some parts of the Las Vegas Valley have so far been hit harder by the pandemic than others.

Las Vegas-area ZIP codes with the most confirmed COVID-19 patients generally correlate with more populous neighborhoods, an analysis of Southern Nevada Health District data on coronavirus patients shows. Areas that have seen more cases also, on average, have lower median household incomes than areas that have seen few cases, although there are exceptions.

The health district on Tuesday released data on the number of COVID-19 patients in each Clark County ZIP code. The data shows ranges of cases, rather than exact numbers, split into the following categories: ZIP codes with 61-83 cases, with 41-60 cases, with 21-40 cases, with 5-20 cases and with fewer than five cases. Officials are not releasing exact case numbers by ZIP code at this time, health district spokesperson Jennifer Sizemore wrote in an email.

The health district could not determine the home ZIP codes of six COVID-19 patients, the data indicates. Patients who lacked permanent residences were reported by the ZIP code in which they were tested or treated, Sizemore wrote.  

The data suggests that while lower-income areas have, on average, more cases than higher-income areas, a ZIP code’s total population correlates most strongly with the number of cases found there. (All income data comes from UnitedStatesZipCodes.org, which pulls numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey.)

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ZIP codes with the most COVID-19 cases also have higher overall populations.

First grouping: ZIP codes with 61-83 cases

The nine ZIP codes in this category, representing areas with the most reported COVID-19 cases, are 89148 and 89117 in southwest Las Vegas, 89052 in Henderson, 89121 and 89110 in east Las Vegas, 89108 in northwest Las Vegas, 89031 and 89030 in North Las Vegas, and 89130 in central Las Vegas/North Las Vegas.

The average population in these ZIP codes is 60,697, higher than that of the other ZIP code groupings. Median household income for these ZIP codes is $53,611, slightly below the Clark County median household income of $57,076.

The Clark County ZIP code with the second highest poverty rate, 89030, is included in this grouping.

Second grouping: ZIP codes with 41-60 cases

Sixteen ZIP codes fall into this grouping. Twelve are in Las Vegas, including unincorporated Clark County, two are in North Las Vegas and two are in Henderson.

Average population in these ZIP codes is 48,150, while median household income is $49,966.

The Clark County ZIP codes with the highest and third highest poverty rates, 89106 and 89101, respectively, are included in this grouping.

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The largest number of Clark County ZIP codes — 24 — fell into the third grouping, representing ZIP codes with 21-40 COVID-19 cases.

Third grouping: ZIP codes with 21-40 cases.

This grouping contains 24 ZIP codes. Six of them are located in Henderson, one is located in North Las Vegas, and all others are located in Las Vegas, including unincorporated Clark County.

Average population in these ZIP codes is 32,363, while median household income is $59,467.

Fourth grouping: ZIP codes with five-20 cases

This grouping contains 12 ZIP codes, but one of them — 89165 — is estimated to have a very small or nonexistent population, according to Pappa. Excluding 89165, average population per ZIP code is 17,702, while median household income is $66,240.

Fifth grouping: ZIP codes with fewer than five cases

This grouping contains four ZIP codes, one of which, 89087, is estimated to have virtually no permanent residents, Pappa wrote in an email. Among the other three ZIP codes, two of which are in Las Vegas and one of which is in Sloan, median household income is $69,919. Average population in each of the three ZIP codes is 2,602.

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Average household income is generally higher in ZIP codes with fewer COVID-19 cases.

Other demographic data on COVID-19 patients limited

In addition to the geographic breakdown of cases released Tuesday, the health district has made available some preliminary demographic data on COVID-19 patients.

According to the latest dataset on all patients published on Tuesday, 50.1% of patients have been females, and 48.3% have been males. The sexes of 1.6% of COVID-19 patients is unknown.

Data on patients’ races and ethnicities remains limited. The health district has not been able to determine this information for 40.9% of all COVID-19 patients.

For those patients for whom racial and ethnic data is available, 20.8% of patients have been white, 14.6% have been Hispanic of any race, 10.2% have been black, 5.9% have been Asian, 1.8% have been Pacific Islander, 0.3% have been mixed-race and 0.2% have been American Indian or Alaskan Native. Other races have made up 4.3% of patients.

The latest data also shows that approximately 16.3% of COVID-19 patients have had underlying health conditions. Of the 106 patients in Clark County who have died from complications related to COVID-19, 55.7% have had underlying health conditions.

Obtaining patients’ demographic information is challenging because the health district must reach out to patients and review their medical records, which requires significant time and resources, Dr. Vit Kraushaar, medical investigator with the health district, said during a press briefing April 10. However, health officials are trying to close the information gaps to the best of their ability. “This becomes very difficult when we start to see hundreds of cases being reported in a single day,” Kraushaar said. “We have about 50 people currently working on doing these investigations.”