LAS VEGAS (AP) – An event on New Year’s Eve in a covered casino-mall in Las Vegas, attended by at least 14,000 people, could be an over-spread event that invades hospitals, members of the task force said Nevada coronavirus on Tuesday.
Nevada’s COVID-19 response director, Caleb Cage, said plans for the annual Fremont Street Experience event could undermine the state’s ability to contain the virus amid the steady increase in hospitalizations.
“It seems that the city has worked hard to get around the spirit and the letter of the directives as they were written to protect us,” he said.
Since November, Nevada has limited the ability of events to 25% or 50 people to contain the virus. Cage said the Fremont Street event not only violated current restrictions, but would not be allowed under any of the more flexible restrictions in the past 10 months.
The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration denied Fremont Street Experience a license to host its annual celebration, but the city of Las Vegas issued a special use license for the location so that it could charge for access and oversee crowd control.
City spokesman David Riggleman said that by issuing a special use license, Las Vegas was not sanctioning any events, but recognizing that many planned to meet in a public place and try to make it as safe as possible.
“People are coming to the Fremont Street Experience and the question for the city was: what would it do to prepare for the fact that people were coming?” said Wesley Harper, the executive director of the Nevada City League, who spoke on behalf of Las Vegas. “If they come, we will do a few things to try to make it as responsible as possible.”
Harper begged officials to view the event as a “protest” that could not be stopped without violating the First Amendment. He said the $ 25 cost was not for tickets, but for a “service fee” to subsidize the cost of necessary law enforcement.
Terri Maruca, public relations representative for Fremont Street Experience, declined to comment.
According to the outdoor shopping website, everyone will need to wear a mask at all times and stand 2 meters away from each other. Unlike previous years, Thursday’s event will not include street performers or live music. But guests can watch a light show, see Slotzilla Zoomline and walk the six blocks of the corridor. Guests at Fremont Street hotels will also be allowed on the premises for parties.
Clark County Commission chairman Marilyn Kirkpatrick told the state task force that she was concerned that the event would take Las Vegas area hospitals beyond capacity. In Clark County, 87% of licensed hospital beds – including 78% of ICU beds – were occupied until Monday, the last available data.
Kirkpatrick said he feared that it would be hospitals and their staff, not New Year’s street party goers, that would pay the price for the event. Although it does not fall within the county’s jurisdiction, she said she planned to ask the organizers to reduce the size of the event to 7,000 and cancel the light show.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Kelly McMahill said at a news conference on Tuesday that police officers will not comply with the Nevada mask order and the requirement for social distance on New Year’s Eve, but plan to ask pedestrians that comply.
“We invite you to have fun, but we also don’t want to send us back months into this pandemic, where we have more and more people going to the hospital and we are closing the city,” said McMahill.
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Sam Metz is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to report on poorly addressed issues.