The Las Vegas Strip and surroundings will fully reopen to vaccinated diners, dancers, shoppers and club-goers beginning June 1. Clark County unanimously voting on Tuesday to abandon restrictions as federal and state guidelines have relaxed with the widespread distribution of the COVID vaccine.
The vote also removes the benchmark the county set last month to fully expand capacity in public spaces once 60% of residents had received at least one shot.
The county won’t take the option away from private business owners to maintain masks and other house rules to mitigate disease spread. Masks will still be required in some controlled places, such as hospitals and healthcare facilities, and at airports and stations and on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation.
The local COVID-19 mitigation plan will expire June 1, allowing for the return of pre-pandemic guidelines that lift restrictions involving capacity limits, large gatherings and more, the County Commission decided today. Our news release: https://t.co/B9tFPC9HTi pic.twitter.com/gADQszYYtI
— Clark County Nevada (@ClarkCountyNV) May 18, 2021
“Note also that masking has never been something that we were acting upon until just now,” Commissioner Jim Gibson said. “The masking was something that the governor withheld when he delegated responsibility for coming up with a plan and executing of a plan to us. When the CDC and then the governor acted, that changed everything here.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks in most indoor settings. This was a game-changer: Gov. Steve Sisolak followed up promptly with an amendment to the state’s mask directive putting it in line with the CDC’s guidelines, and the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which regulates casinos independently of counties, said that all licensees will be allowed to follow the updated guidance.
To that end, many properties immediately passed on the flexibility to guests. Several casino operators had already received waivers from the gaming control board to operate their gaming floors at 100% with no social distancing after submitting requests noting that the vast majority of their employees were vaccinated against COVID-19.