No sooner did I release last week’s post about the Las Vegas Mask Mandate likely staying around well into 2022, news hits that gives hope that mask mandates could go away much sooner. The Southern Nevada Health Department’s latest pandemic data release suddenly gives hope that we may be reaching the start of the ending of our CoVid nightmare.
One key CDC guideline for ending mask requirements is a CoVid test positivity rate of less than 8% for at least two continuous weeks. The latest health update shows that Clark County (which includes Las Vegas) has been below the 8% threshold since October 5th. So long as that number stays below that line, consider Las Vegas has one big green check mark for one of the two primary goals for removing mask mandates.
The second CDC goal is for actual new CoVid cases to be under 50 per week for at least two successive weeks. Vegas is still a ways from reaching that number with current rates still well above 100/week.
More work left to do. Yet the new numbers open up new short term scenarios where the Las Vegas mask mandates could be eased or completely rescinded in as little as two weeks!
Of course, attaining those goals and getting rid of the mask mandates in only two weeks is incredibly unlikely. First Las Vegas has to slash weekly new cases by well over half and keep them at that level. And then I expect health officials will be careful to pull the trigger on rescinding mask requirements too soon even if the numbers look good.
As I have said before, it is the nature of the Sin City economy that makes health officials so careful. Las Vegas is a tourist town. Hundreds of thousands of people every week travel from all over to mix together, have fun, then go back to their home towns. It is the perfect scenario for super spreader events to bubble out. Health officials and local government recognize that the absolutely worst thing long term that can happen to Las Vegas is a huge infection spread occur through tourist contact at our city. The thought of thousands of cases and hundreds of dead because of a visit here must give our business leaders hives.
So not in two weeks, but maybe end of November or sometime in December of 2021 the mask mandate has the potential of being eased or rescinded in Las Vegas. What do you think of that?
The Vagabond Horizon 