Masks Back On In Clark County

By NICK YAMASHITA & VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

Employees had to mask up again in Clark County starting last week.

Citing a sharp upward spike in COVID-19 cases during the month of July, the Clark County Commission voted on Tuesday, July 20 to reinstate a mask mandate. The mandate was effective midnight on Thursday, July 22. The mandate only covers employees and employers of all businesses working indoors with the public within incorporated and unincorporated Clark County.

Dr. Cort Lohff, Chief Medical Officer at Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) gave a report to the Commission. He stated that since early June, there had been nearly a tripling of COVID-19 cases in the community and a tripling in the percent of tests given that were positive.

“This is driven by the delta variant,” Lohff said. “This is a much more contagious type of virus than we previously saw. And this accounts for the vast majority that we have seen in Clark County during this spike.”

Lohff also stated that the counnty had seen a plateau in vaccination rates as well. Most of the senior population has received the vaccine. But the largest pockets who had not received vaccinations were younger people from 12 and up, as well as the African American population, Lohff said.

Lohff said that there had been an uptick in hospitalization numbers in the county, however nothing like what had been seen earlier this year. An overwhelming majority of the hospitalizations were those who had not received vaccinations, he said.

The COVID cases that ended up in hospitalization in Nevada surpassed 1,000 cases last Thursday, according to the SNHD website. Nevada also reports only 44% of the total population being fully vaccinated.

Commissioners agreed that vaccinations are where the focus should be in the long term. “We have heard from some (of the public) here today that masks are merely a bandaid,” said Commissioner Michael Naft. “I believe that is true. I believe that the vaccine is the permanent solution to help us move forward. That is where we should focus.”

Commissioners urged health authorities to work quickly to come up with more effective publicity campaigns over media outlets commonly in use by the unvaccinated target market.

“We need to get a lot better at social media campaigns in the places where the young people are,” said Commissioner Jim Gibson.

Gibson suggested that a professional firm be tapped to manage such a campaign geared at typically less-vaccinated segments of the population.
Still, Commissioners admitted that a mask mandate, at least for employees, would provide a greater amount of protection to workers and the public in the short term.
“I don’t have a problem with the concept of moving forward today with requiring employees to wear masks,” said Commissioner Justin Jones. “But I won’t pretend it will have much of an effect on transmission or on trade shows or others. It has to be paired with a requirement to post signage and make it clear that all people within indoor spaces wear masks.”
Jones reiterated that it was vaccinations that would be the thing that truly change the trajectory.
“If the headline from this today is just imposing mask mandates on employees, we will have failed,” he said. “We need to get people vaccinated. We need to get to 70 percent at least in short order.”
In the end, the mask mandate policy was passed unanimously. It was declared in effect until August 17 when the mandate would be reassessed by the Commission based on numbers at that time.
After the news of the unanimous vote, Nevada GovernorSteve Sisolak released a statement regarding the action taken.
“I support the Clark County Commission for using their local authority to issue this mitigation measure amid significant community transmission in Southern Nevada and as we continue our joint effort to increase access and confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines,” said Sisolak.
Assemblywoman Annie Black of Mesquite, in an interview with The Progress last week, expressed opposition to the action.
“If the vaccine works, why are masks needed for those who have been vaccinated?” she said. “If masks work, why continue to strong-arm and bribe people to get vaccinated if they’re wearing masks? I thought we were supposed to follow the science, not the politics.”