Nevada Governor Shares Long-term Covid-19 Mitigation Plan Details
During a press conference yesterday evening, Governor Steve Sisolak laid out Nevada’s long-term Covid-19 mitigation plan, which he first announced last week.
Gov. Sisolak praised Nevada’s initial efforts to flatten the curve, which included stay-at-home orders and business closures.
“However, shutting down public and economic activity is not sustainable in the long term,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands lost jobs, businesses suffered, and our fragile economy took a massive hit.”
Last week, the governor announced an end to the phased reopening approach Nevada and other states have taken. Instead, the state has developed a long-term mitigation plan that focuses on data and targeted responses.
As I shared last week, Nevada’s new strategy involves “Elevated Disease Transmission” criteria. The state will work with the counties, collecting data and updating the EDT criteria. Nevada’s Covid-19 Response Task Force will assess whether a county’s risk has increased—meeting two or more EDT criteria for two or more consecutive weeks—or decreased.
If a county’s risk is determined to have increased, the task force will attempt to identify the root cause of the increase and create an action plan to mitigate it. Gov. Sisolak shared that some potential measures to decrease a county’s risk may be decreasing gathering sizes, decreasing a business’ fire code capacity, and increased enforcement.
Four Nevada counties were determined to have increased disease transmission risk last week. According to Gov. Sisolak, the risk in those counties remains. Therefore, bars and taverns that don’t serve food in Clark (Boulder City, Las Vegas, Henderson), Elko, Nye (Tonopah) and Washoe (Reno, Sparks) counties will remain closed for at least another week. Restaurants in those counties will continue to operate at reduced capacities, as will gyms.
The governor also stated that this new strategy doesn’t represent a relaxing of Nevada’s mitigation efforts. To the contrary, he said this plan is more aggressive. Gov. Sisolak also warned Nevadans against relaxing their own efforts to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
“Just as before, this plan will not work if we don’t have full participation from all Nevadans—every county, municipality, business, employee, neighbor, and family,” said the governor after reinforcing that face coverings are mandated and “aggressive” social distancing remains crucial.
“Make no mistake, Nevada: we are in a precarious position. I promise you, I will give you all I have—my energy, resources, focus and my best efforts—to walk this tightrope between your personal health and financial sustainability, but to get this done, we all need to be in it together,” Gov. Sisolak said before taking questions.
Image by David Mark from Pixabay
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David Klemt View All
I’ve been studying and writing about the hospitality industry since 2006. Like so many people, I started my journey in this business by working as a host, server and bartender. I was introduced to nightlife in Chicago, learning the ins and outs of nightclubs and after-hours hot spots.
After moving to Las Vegas nearly 20 years ago, I both co-owned a valet company and helped promote the club it serviced. That led to me taking on the role of editor for a Las Vegas hospitality industry publication.
A few short years later, I continued along my journey of hospitality industry reporting. I went from contributing to a major industry outlet to taking on the role of editor and content curator.
Hospitality Villains 