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LAS VEGAS (AP) – Masks are back in Las Vegas, after regional health officials cited an increasing number of coronavirus cases on Friday and advised everyone – vaccinated or not – to wear face coverings in crowds and indoor places.
The recommendation from the Southern Nevada Health District is not a requirement. But it is affecting casinos, concerts and clubs where business has exploded since restrictions were lifted and the state fully returned pandemic control measures to counties about seven weeks ago.
“Vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear masks when in overcrowded public places … such as grocery stores, malls, major events and casinos,” Dr Fermin Leguen, director of the health of the region.
He said the district does not have the power to make masks mandatory, leaving that matter to the state, county and cities.
Vaccination clinics and testing are continuing at sites in the region, Leguen added.
Vaccination rates have stagnated in recent weeks in Nevada, a libertarian-leaning state where health officials reported on Friday that about 55% of residents 12 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Statewide, about 46.3% are fully immunized.
Nationally, 68% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A union official representing 60,000 Nevada casino workers issued a statement noting the risks posed to workers by unvaccinated people.
Culinary Union official Geoconda Argüello-Kline pointed to CDC data that more than 97% of people who have been hospitalized recently with COVID-19 have not received a vaccine.
The mask recommendation in Las Vegas came after Nevada health officials on Thursday reported 938 new cases of COVID-19 statewide – the biggest jump in one-day coronavirus cases since February – and 15 new deaths.
It also followed a call from the Los Angeles public health chief for Californians to rethink their travel plans in Nevada until the number of COVID-19 cases in Silver State declines.
Southern California weekend visitors have blocked Interstate 15, the main route on the 270-mile (435-kilometer) route between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in recent months.
“I want to recommend, especially if you are not vaccinated, reconsidering your trip to places where seven-day COVID-19 case rates are increasing or are high like our neighbor Nevada,” Dr. Muntu Davis to Los Angeles County Commissioners. .
Davis also recommended using masks in indoor spaces, regardless of immunization status.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s Chief of Staff Michelle White responded in a video conference with reporters Thursday by suggesting that people go to Nevada and get vaccinated.
“That’s why we’re working to make sure there are vaccination and testing locations located in places like the Las Vegas Strip. It’s open to anyone, workers… visitors, ”White said. “We have all three vaccines offered, including the single vaccine. If someone is coming from out of state it may be more convenient and we certainly encourage everyone to do so. “
The Department of Health and Human Services said the positivity of the tests, a key marker of the percentage of people infected among those tested for the virus, had tripled from 3.4% five weeks ago to 10, 9% Thursday.
The positivity figure reported by the state Department of Health and Human Services was 12.3% in the Las Vegas area.
The number of new cases reported in Nevada on Friday was 866, and six new deaths. This brought the number of lives lost in the state to COVID-19 to 5,758 since March 2020.
Most of Nevada’s cases and deaths during the pandemic have been in the Las Vegas area, which is home to 2.3 million people and receives tens of millions of visitors annually.
Washoe County health officials said on Friday they did not intend to implement any mask requirements or recommendations because the virus has not increased in the Reno- area. Sparks as much as he did in Las Vegas.
Elsewhere, local officials in Lander and Elko County have recently focused on passing preemptive resolutions against vaccine passports.
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Associated Press editors Scott Sonner in Reno and Sam Metz in Carson City contributed to this report.
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