LAS VEGAS – Clark County commissioners have mandated that all employees working indoors in a public space wear masks in an attempt to contain the rapid spread of COVID-19 in recent weeks.
The new restrictions, which were passed during an emergency meeting on Tuesday, come three months after federal authorities announced that fully vaccinated people will no longer need to wear masks in most indoor and outdoor areas.
But in Nevada, new coronavirus cases rose 51.8% in the week through Sunday as 5,024 cases were reported. In the previous week there were 3,309 new cases of the virus that is causing COVID-19.
“One solution, of course, is to wear a mask,” Cortland Lohff, chief medical officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, told commissioners.
The new mandate will come into force on Wednesday at midnight and will remain in force until at least August 17th. If COVID-19 metrics don’t improve, the next step could be a mask mandate for the general public.
While Lohff recommended that everyone – vaccinated or not – wear masks, the commissioners only moved to require workers to wear them indoors.
Requiring everyone to wear masks rather than picking workers out would be more effective for me in fighting the spread, Lohff said, since unvaccinated people will continue to walk around without masks.
Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom asked Lohff if he would consider the recent surge in COVID-19 cases “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
“That’s right,” said Lohff.
The ultimate solution? Vaccinate the public, said Lohff.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick said the county must do all it can to fight the spread of the virus that has killed more than 600,000 people in the United States
“We have to get back on track to get out of here,” said Kirkpatrick.
The Southern Nevada Health District last week recommended the wearing of masks for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in crowded indoor public places. The district changed its mask policy after rising case numbers and hospital admissions for COVID-19, which is experiencing a resurgence due to the delta variant.
Nevada ranked fifth among the states where the coronavirus spread fastest per person, according to an analysis by the USA TODAY Network of data from Johns Hopkins University. Last week, coronavirus cases in the United States rose 66% from the previous week, with 226,012 cases reported.
At 0.93% of the country’s population, Nevada had 2.22% of the country’s cases last week. Across the country, 50 states had more cases in the past week than the week before.
Nevada had the worst weekly outbreaks per capita in Esmeralda, Clark, and Mineral counties. Most of the total new cases were in Clark County with 4,599 cases; Washoe County with 236 cases; and Lyon County at 38. Weekly case numbers were up in 14 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the previous week’s pace were in Clark, Washoe and Lyon counties.
Contributing: USA TODAY.
Ed Komenda writes about Las Vegas for the Reno Gazette Journal and the USA Today Network. Is democracy important to you? Then support local journalism by subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal right here.
