For months now, residents of the United States have been encouraged by local and federal health officials to wear masks and socially distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In areas where the virus is running rampant, individuals are asked to only go outside of the home to buy groceries, get medicine, visit the doctor, etc. Everyone is discouraged from hosting or attending events. With the recent New Years Eve holiday, many people in the US ignored the advice. So much so, that partygoers may be the undoing of any recovery efforts the city was seeing over the past few months.
Blame NYE
Las Vegas is laden with restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as case counts continue to increase. One health official is now blaming partygoers from NYE as the catalyst for continued issues in Las Vegas. Anyone who was in the area on NYE should pretty much act like they have the virus, according to Caleb Cage, an expert on the virus.
Cage pointed out in a recent interview with KTNV-TV that people who attended the celebrations could be spreading the virus and no have idea they are doing so. This of course if due to some people being asymptomatic. This is a main problem of this virus as many people can be infected and show zero symptoms. The more these people are out and about, the higher the risk that others will become infected.
The scary impact that the NYE celebrations in Vegas could have are that many people would have attended from out of town or even out of state. This means that the virus is potentially spreading outside the region.
New Years Eve was not the usual party in Las Vegas this year, but events did take place. People gathered in Sin City and photos on social media and news sites show that people were gathering in large numbers and were not wearing a mask.
The governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak, tried to stop such events from happening, asking people not to gather in hot spots. But just like every other warning people are given about the virus, it goes ignored.
The Negative Effect
With more positive cases of COVID-19, Las Vegas will see negative repercussions. Right now, the entire state is restricted to gatherings of only 50 people or less. This number could shrink even more in the city if the positive case counts continue to rise. This means conferences and other events will continue to be banned.
Casinos are also operating at a restricted capacity. The governor does not have any problem with shutting the casinos down or restricting them even further due to virus issues. If people are not willing to follow the rules and cases continue, we may see casinos shutting down or offering even less services than they already are.
The casinos as well as employees are suffering due to the actions of visitors and residents. Hopefully, the cases will not increase, or people will at least see the danger as to what can happen if you gather in large crowds, not wearing masks during a pandemic.
