With the eyes of the tourism world watching, Las Vegas, which launched its post-pandemic era with great fanfare earlier this summer, will once again require workers to mask up while indoors, though regulations, for now, spare visitors. The setback comes as the city suffers from a surge of COVID-19 cases, predominantly the highly transmissible delta variant.
Elected officials say they are worried about public health and the economic effects of another wave of the coronavirus, with Clark County commissioner Jim Gibson stating, “We’ve got to do something.”
The tourism world, he said, was watching what the elected body with jurisdiction over the Las Vegas Strip would do, adding, “We have already been through a shutdown and a start-up,” Gibson said. “We cannot afford to have major conventions choose to go elsewhere.”
Notably, Las Vegas is set to host the annual US Travel IPW trade show from Sept. 18 to 22, which attracts travel and tourism delegates from around the world to the US tourism’s signature event. In Canada, registration for delegates is currently ongoing with several regular attendees telling Travel Industry Today that they are monitoring developments in Las Vegas and the US closely before deciding whether to go.
Amidst such sentiment, the Clark County Commission on Tuesday voted to make employers require workers to wear masks in indoor public spaces like stores, malls and clubs, and post signs citing local health district advice that everyone — vaccinated or not — should wear face coverings.
A hastily called and sometimes contentious emergency meeting on Tuesday drew a big audience and about 50 speakers — almost all opposed to mask requirements, vaccinations, and business closures and distancing.
“Any decision a person takes involves risks. Vaccines should be up to us,” declared speaker Katrin Ivanoff, who was later removed by security officers after a vocal outburst from her seat.
Nevada Resort Association and Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce representatives said they favoured a mask mandate and asked for written guidance about enforcement.
The commission unanimously decided venues where more than 250 people gather should submit by next Monday plans about possible next steps to stem the spread of coronavirus. The vote made the mask rule effective at 12:01 a.m. today (Thursday), to be reviewed Aug. 17.
Some said they simply won’t comply.
“It will fail to be enforced,” speaker Monica Ursua predicted. “We the people say, ‘No more.’”
The seven-member commission, all Democrats, acknowledged “coronavirus fatigue” 16 months after Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak mandated masks in March 2020, closed casinos and nonessential businesses, and implemented distancing and other measures.
On May 13, the governor, a Democrat, following CDC guidelines, dropped the requirement for vaccinated people to wear face coverings in Nevada. Unvaccinated people were still advised to wear masks.
In the two months since then, the delta variant, first detected in India, has gripped Nevada and has been identified in over 75% of samples collected and sequenced from Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County.
“The delta variant has changed the game,” said Brian Labus, a long-time Southern Nevada Health District epidemiologist who now teaches public health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He said in an interview the debate about masks re-emerged “because we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.”
“We know masks reduce your risk, and the risk of spreading the virus to others,” Labus said. “(But) we don’t want to go back to closures and restrictions in capacity and social distancing.”
Labus has advised the governor on pandemic issues and has called for people to get vaccinated. He acknowledged data shows that most people now contracting the virus are not vaccinated.
The number of new cases of COVID-19 reported Tuesday in Nevada continued to climb, to 1,004, but no new deaths. Meanwhile, state vaccination rates have stalled in recent weeks.
Health officials report that 55.4% of Nevada residents 12 years and older have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and about 46.6% are fully vaccinated.
The balance between tourism and health safety is “tricky” for public officials, said Amanda Belarmino, an assistant professor at the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at UNLV.
“You don’t want to alienate customers,” she said. “It’s hard to tell people again they’re going back to restrictions. But I think most people would rather wear a mask than not be able to leave home.”