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Following five years of partial accreditation, the UNLV School of Medicine announced...that it had been fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which oversees the accreditation process for medical schools in both the U.S. and Canada...“Full accreditation is an important milestone both for the university and the countless individuals who’ve dedicated so much to establish and build a thriving School of Medicine,” UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is years in the making, and is a testament to the school’s faculty, staff, and exceptional future physicians who are committed to improving health care in Southern Nevada.”...READ MORE

Amid a slew of cuts attempting to mitigate projected budget shortfalls in a state largely dependent on tourism and gaming for revenue, state employees are protesting proposed changes that would reduce health care coverage options provided by the state...The proposed cuts in the Nevada Public Employees' Benefits Program budget would reduce life insurance benefits from $25,000 for an active employee to $15,000 and from $12,500 for a retiree to $7,500, eliminate long-term disability insurance and lower Medicare Health Reimbursement Arrangement contributions from $13 to $11 a month per year of service. Though Gov. Steve Sisolak in his State of the State address touted only a 2 percent state budget cut, programs such as PEBP are feeling the cuts more deeply than others...READ MORE

A Nevada man has been charged with fraudulently obtaining about $2 million in federal coronavirus relief aid, meant for small businesses, to buy luxury vehicles and condominiums in Las Vegas...The U.S. attorney’s office in Nevada accused Jorge Abramovs with bank fraud after he allegedly applied for funding to at least seven banks between April and June 2020...The complaint said Abramovs used a variety of company names — National Investment Group Corporation, National Legal Advisors In Care Of and National Investment Group — that “misrepresented the number of employees and the amount of revenue and payroll his companies had” to the banks...READ MORE

A new temporary clinic in Southern Nevada began administering COVID-19 antibody treatment on Friday, bringing new hope to lessen the severity of the virus and reduce the strain on local hospitals...Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center opened a Monoclonal Antibody Clinic with the support of the National Disaster Medical System and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The clinic is expected to operate for four to six weeks but can be extended to match the community’s need...This is the third antibody infusion clinic in the country, with others opened in El Centro, California and Tucson, Arizona within the past two weeks...READ MORE

Nevada no longer has one of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates per capita in the U.S., according to federal data...The Silver State had consistently ranked among the bottom five states at administering vaccine for weeks. It now ranks 12th worst, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported...READ MORE

Nevada’s top federal prosecutor said...that his office is expecting a “tidal wave” of CARES Act-related fraud investigations and subsequent prosecutions in the months to come...Congress passed a massive $2 trillion stimulus package last March and included key provisions, such as unemployment insurance benefits and the popular Paycheck Protection Program for struggling businesses...“Businesses were hurting and they still are,” said U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich in an interview with the Review-Journal. Federal relief aid like the PPP, Trutanich said, served as a critical lifeline to keep many Nevada businesses afloat...READ MORE

Washoe County Health District received doses from the same lot of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that California health officials have recommended providers stop administering after several people in the state experienced apparent severe allergic reactions...The health district administered doses from the same lot Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, 041L20A, to about 770 people at its drive-thru point of dispensing vaccination site...None of those individuals have reported severe allergic reactions, and there were no issues reported from patients who used the 15- and 30-minute waiting lots, which are set up to ensure that patients don’t experience any allergic reactions before driving off, after receiving the vaccine...READ MORE

Nevada health officials are sending a message to federal agencies allocating COVID-19 vaccines to states: Show us your math...Questions have dogged state officials since Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed Nevada consistently ranking near the bottom of national lists for both receiving vaccine doses and putting shots into arms...Each state’s vaccine allocation is purportedly proportional to its adult population, but officials have offered conflicting information on what year’s population numbers are being used...READ MORE

Gov. Steve Sisolak has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is near the bottom of the list for the amount of COVID-19 vaccine it has been allocated per capita...“We need our fair share of vaccine doses to stand up and sustain successful vaccination efforts to reach Nevadans in an equitable fashion,” Sisolak wrote in a letter to acting Health and Human Services Secretary Norris Cochran, according to a news release on Monday. “Through this letter I am asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to look into why Nevada is so low on the allocation list, and more important, to find ways to increase our allocation both immediately and for the long term.”...READ MORE

Nevada launched an updated COVID-19 data dashboard...providing the public with more local data about the impact of the coronavirus...The dashboard contains county-level data about testing, cases, hospitalizations and deaths. For the first time, the data on the page can be downloaded...The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services compiles and updates the data daily. It can be accessed at nvhealthresponse.nv.gov...READ MORE