Jim Murren believes Nevada has a lot to look forward to.

Jim Murren believes Nevada has a lot to look forward to.

As the pandemic has progressed in California, holiday travel and gatherings have fueled surges while the state has changed systems to attempt to control the rapid spread of the virus.

From healthcare workers to politicians, double-masking is the latest coronavirus trend. In a press briefing Wednesday February 3, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci, M.D. said that double masking could be a common-sense approach in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. He even added that he wears two masks in situations where he won’t be able to sufficiently socially distance himself from others. But does that mean runners should think about wearing two masks when training?

January was the deadliest month during the pandemic in Nevada. More than 1,100 people statewide lost their lives. But, as we make our way through February, the state is starting to see a downward trend in cases and hospitalizations. KUNR’s Lucia Starbuck talks with an epidemiologist to learn what this recent decline means.

San Francisco has taken a dramatic step in its effort to get kids back into public schools, according to the Associated Press.

The state recorded its deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic in January after adding eight deaths over the weekend. The additional deaths Sunday boosted the statewide death toll for the month to 1,132, more than a quarter of the 4,278 deaths since the pandemic began, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The state surpassed the previous monthly record of 982 deaths set in December. University of Nevada, Las Vegas epidemiologist Brian Labus said the current figures are a lagging indicator because the people who died in January were mostly infected between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. “So it doesn’t tell us about what’s going on now,” he said. “It tells us about what was going on a while ago.” Labus said data showed the state is averaging 16 deaths a day over the past two weeks.

As highly contagious coronavirus variants spread, health experts in the Mountain West and beyond are urging people to upgrade and double up their masks.