LAS VEGAS (AP) – Six weeks ago, thousands of New Year’s partygoers gathered under the neon-lit tents on the Las Vegas Strip – even though the big annual fireworks show was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The sight of the large crowd, including many people without masks, raised fears that COVID-19 infections would increase, followed by hospitalizations and then deaths. That’s 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 reshaping a tourist destination built for excess and known for bright lights, large crowds, indulgent meals and main shows. Visitors end up finding some restricted freedoms and some closed family attractions, but parking and bargain prices are plentiful. Big shows and conventions are still waiting.
“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 with them,” said Brian Labus, a longtime epidemiologist in Nevada’s regional health district who now teaches. public health at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. “The concern is that it is spreading in our local population.”
In mid-January, more than half of hospitals in and around Las Vegas reported being at least 90 percent full. A suburban medical center has declared a capacity crisis, with more patients than beds. Almost half of its 147 beds were occupied by coronavirus patients.
Nevada deaths hit a record 71 days on Jan. 21. On Thursday, the total number of deaths nationwide due to COVID-19 was 4,637 since the pandemic began.
As in other cities, some overwhelmed funeral homes used refrigerated trailers to hold the dead, said coroner Michael Murphy.
“It’s not like I’ve ever experienced in my career as a nurse,” said Dina Armstrong, a nurse at MountainView Hospital in northwest Las Vegas. “Treating this disease is amazing – stress and the environment.”
On the street, 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 near 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: play, walk, go to your room,” Sepulveda said.
Speaking through a cloth mask, her husband, Ozzy Benavidez, said she went to magic shows and restaurants. Instead, the couple bought dining tables and ate in their room.
Some branded properties have been left empty, including the Mirage Casino and its iconic eruptions of volcanoes on the Strip.
Others, such as the Wynn Resorts Encore property, are closed during the week but open on weekends. The unused conventional space in the elegant, curved 2,700-room tower has been rebuilt as a vaccination center run by the region’s public hospital. Nearly 11,500 people were shot there.
At the Las Vegas Convention Center, where a huge new wing was expected to open in time for the big Consumer Electronics gadget show in early January, officials opened a facility for people receiving the second dose of vaccine. CES took place practically.
Up and down the Strip, from the renovated Sahara to the gleaming golden window of Mandalay Bay, visitors found quiet floors for gambling, closed showrooms and cheap 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 parking spaces and signs everywhere that remind them to wear masks. I don’t see thousands of workers still without jobs.
When the casinos closed in mid-March, 98% of the 60,000 members of local food unions and bartenders were rescued. Union spokesman Bethany Khan said only about half had returned to work now.
At least 115 union members and close family members died of COVID-19 and nearly 2,000 were hospitalized with the virus in March, Khan said.
Unemployment in Nevada rose from an all-time low of 3.6% in February 2020 to a record low of 30.1% in April. The figure fell to 9.2% in December.
From mid-March to January 30, more than 834,000 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time, according to the state unemployment office. This figure is particularly staggering when compared to the size of the entire state-wide workforce a year ago – 1.4 million people.
The number of visitors has dropped by more than half in 2020 – only 19 million – compared to 42.5 million in 2019, according to data compiled by tourism, airport and gambling regulators.
Casino tax revenues, a key source of funding in a state without personal income tax, fell by 40% in the calendar year, gambling regulators reported.
The big conventions came to a complete halt in March and did not resume. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak allowed casinos to reopen in June, with pandemic restrictions. In November, he instituted what he called a “break” in reopening.
Citing progress against the virus, the governor said on Thursday that restrictions on businesses and assemblies could be relaxed in the next three months.
Casinos, gyms, bars and restaurants will increase from 25% to 35% of capacity starting Monday, with limited seats, mask mandates and social distance. Casinos could reach 50% capacity next month. Clubs and nightclubs remain closed.
Until the resumption of performances, some veteran artists may disappear, said Alan Feldman, a longtime casino executive who is now a member of the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“A fee that has not yet been measured is the loss of talent,” Feldman said. “To what extent have people moved to other careers or back to school or out of state? That is yet to be determined. ”