LAS VEGAS (AP) – Six weeks ago, thousands of New Year’s Eve partygoers gathered under the neon-lit canopies of the Las Vegas Strip, although the big annual fireworks display was called off in cause of the coronavirus pandemic.
The vision of the large crowd, including many people without masks, sparked fears that COVID-19 infections would spread, followed by hospitalizations and after death. This is exactly what happened. January was the deadliest month in Nevada since the pandemic began, with 1,132 deaths. December was the second.
Now the virus is reforming a tourist destination built for excess and known for bright lights, large crowds, indulgent meals and headlines. Visitors come to find some reduced liberties and some closed family attractions, but parking and bargain prices are plentiful. Great performances and conventions remain on hold.
“We have an industry that invites people from all over the world to come here, and unfortunately when they come here, they can bring disease,” said Brian Labus, a longtime epidemiologist in the southern Nevada regional health district who now publicly teaches health. at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. “The concern is that it will spread to our local population.”
By mid-January, more than half of hospitals in and around Las Vegas reported being at least 90 percent full. A suburban medical center declared a capacity crisis, with more patients than beds. Nearly half of its 147 beds were occupied by coronavirus patients.
On January 21, deaths in Nevada reached a record 71 days in a single day. On Thursday, the total number of deaths from COVID-19 was 4,637 since the pandemic began.
As in other cities, some overwhelmed funeral homes have used refrigerated trailers to contain the dead, said acting coroner Michael Murphy.
“It’s nothing like what I’ve never experienced in my nursing career,” said Dina Armstrong, a nurse at MountainView Hospital in northwest Las Vegas. “Treating this disease is mind-boggling: stress and the environment.”
On the streets, the result is far fewer tourists and “a very different experience,” said Marilinda Sepulveda, a repeat visitor, as she and her husband waited to take pictures next to the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.
The couple from Mission, Texas, spent two nights at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, in the heart of the Strip. “Nightlife is: you play, you walk, you go to your room,” Sepulveda said.
Speaking with a cloth face mask, her husband, Ozzy Benavidez, said they would have gone to magic shows and restaurants. Instead, the couple bought takeaway meals and ate in their room.
Some canopy properties have been left inactive, including the Mirage casino and its iconic eruptions of artificial volcanoes in the Strip.
Others, such as Wynn Resorts ’Encore property, are closed during the week but open on weekends. The unused convention space in the elegant 2,700-room curved tower was reused as a vaccination center operated by the region’s public hospital. About 11,500 people have been shot.
At the Las Vegas Convention Center, where a huge new wing was expected to open in time for the large display of Consumer Electronics appliances, in early January, officials opened a facility for people receiving their second dose of vaccine. The CES was held virtually.
Up and down the Strip, from the renovated Sahara to the bright Mandalay Bay, with gilded windows, visitors have found quiet betting flats, closed showrooms and affordable rates.
Daniel Pangau, pastor of an Indonesian Christian church in Brea, California, thought a three-day stay at the Delano Hotel for his family of six cost less than half the price before the pandemic.
Tourists find ample parking and signs everywhere to remind them to wear masks. They don’t see the thousands of workers still unemployed.
When the casinos closed in mid-March, 98% of the 60,000 members of local kitchen and waiter unions were sent to the lounge. Union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said only half have returned to work now.
At least 115 union members and immediate family members have died from COVID-19 and nearly 2,000 have been hospitalized with the virus since March, Khan said.
Unemployment in Nevada went from an all-time low of 3.6% in February 2020 to a worse record of 30.1% in April. The figure dropped to 9.2% in December.
From mid-March to January 30, more than 834,000 people filed claims for the first time for unemployment benefits, according to the state unemployment office. This figure is especially staggering when weighed against the size of the entire workforce across the state a year ago: 1.4 million people.
Visitor figures fell more than half in 2020 (only 19 million), compared to 42.5 million in 2019, according to data collected by tourism, airport and gambling regulators.
Casino tax revenue, a key source of funds in a state without personal income tax, fell 40 percent during the calendar year, gambling regulators reported.
The major conventions came to a complete halt in March and have not resumed. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak let the casinos reopen in June with pandemic restrictions. In November, he instituted what he called a “pause” in reopenings.
Citing advances against the virus, the governor announced Thursday that restrictions on business and meetings could be relaxed over the next three months.
Casinos, gyms, bars and restaurants will increase from 25% to 35% of capacity from Monday, with seating limits, mask mandates and social distancing. Casinos could reach 50% capacity next month. Clubs and nightclubs remain closed.
When the shows resume, some veteran artists may have disappeared, said Alan Feldman, a longtime casino executive who is now a member of the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“One toll yet to be measured is the loss of talent,” Feldman said. “To what extent have people moved on to other careers, in school or out of state? That remains to be determined. “