Eagle News — “When will we reopen our economy?” — is the biggest question that hangs over business owners and politicians. Time lost, is money lost.
The Las Vegas strip, is an economic powerhouse. Not only for the city of Las Vegas but for the entire state of Nevada. The impacts of visitor (tourism/conventions) spending in 2018, Southern Nevada’s tourism industry contributed $57.6 billion in total output.
It’s no wonder that Mayor Carolyn Goodman, wants to reopen the Las Vegas Strip. During a live interview on CNN, Mayor Goodman said, “right now, we’re in a crisis health-wise, and so for a restaurant to be open or a small boutique to be open, they better figure it out. That’s their job. That’s not the mayor’s job.”
However, the biggest backlash to Mayor Goodman’s interview, was when she offered to use the city of Las Vegas, as a control group to measure against the virus. Stating, “we [city of Las Vegas] would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against.”
Nevada Responds
Congresswoman Dina Titus, whose district includes the entire Las Vegas Strip did give a statement in response “we have to listen to the scientists and right now they will tell us, we must continue to stay at home as much as possible, businesses in Las Vegas will only be able to recover. If we take this pandemic seriously.”
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, unveiled a four phased approach to reopening Nevada’s economy. And he stated that it is highly dependent upon expanded testing and tracing capacity.
But as of right now, the state of Nevada, is at Phase Zero.
Stating in the Governors Press Conference release, “Lifting social distancing measures too soon and without a strategy can be compared to a parachute which slows the rate of descent, but if removed too early still ends in tragedy.”
To move from Phase Zero to Phase One, is heavily relied on the ability for the healthcare and public health systems to adequately respond to situation at hand. Including:
- Maintaining hospital capacity without being in crisis and sufficient public health workforce
- Both local and state governments are to also conduct case contact tracing with the main goal of being able to isolate.
Phase One consists of:
- Elective outpatient surgeries
- The reopening of gyms under strict social distancing protocols
- The reopening of some other “large venues” — such as restaurants, movie theaters, athletic facilities and churches — with tight caps on the number of residents allowed inside.
But as of right now, Nevada state government cannot release a firm date of when phase one can even begin.
Until the state of Nevada can hit these bench marks, the economy will remain closed. Sorry Mayor Goodman, you’re going to have to wait.
© Eagle News
