Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Las Vegas resorts can make good use of rooms by housing front-liners

Views of the Las Vegas Strip Sunday, March 22, 2020.

Steve Marcus

A view of the Las Vegas Strip looking southbound from Flamingo Road Sunday, March 22, 2020.

As Southern Nevada’s health care workers and first responders battle the coronavirus outbreak, it’s our obligation as a community to support them and their families as best we can.

Here’s a way the resort companies of Las Vegas could make a huge difference in their lives: by offering rooms to workers who need to self-quarantine after being exposed.

Amid the rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the region, health care providers and others on the front line of the pandemic are beginning to become exposed. It was reported Friday that two nurses at University Medical Center had tested positive, and the Southern Nevada Health District reported that one of its staff members also tested positive last week. Meanwhile, two Metro Police officers and one from North Las Vegas also have tested positive.

Sadly, more emergency responders and medical staff will be exposed.

For these individuals, self-quarantining at home raises a risk of making their loved ones sick. Giving them the option of isolating at a resort would be a great comfort for them and a fitting way for Las Vegas to return something to the front-liners who are doing so much to save lives.

And with about 100,000 rooms sitting empty on the Strip, there are plenty that could be used for this purpose.

The idea of repurposing them for self-quarantining isn’t unprecedented. In fact, it’s already happening in New York City, where officials have started lodging health care workers with COVID-19 symptoms in hundreds of hotels across the five boroughs. In addition, a private operator, U.S. Aimbridge Hospitality, announced a deal to make more than 700 Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels across the nation available as surge capacity.

In Las Vegas, our resort companies have a long history of supporting our community through charitable giving and volunteer work — its schools, its social service network, its civic improvement projects and more.

Stepping up and providing rooms would be a signature contribution during this crisis. The resort operators of Las Vegas are experts at logistics, and no logistical barriers should be considered too large when the health, comfort and peace of mind for front-liners and their families are involved.

This would be a wonderful way to pay back those who gave so much in the wake of the Oct. 1 shooting.

It would also fill a need that is growing more critical by the day as the number of COVID-19 cases spirals upward in Southern Nevada. According to the latest figures available as of this writing, the number jumped to 1,125 on Thursday from 961 on Wednesday. That’s a 17% increase in one day.

Worse yet, the number had jumped more than 150% from the level just six days earlier — 443 on March 27.

For the heroic individuals who are going to work every day worrying about bringing the virus home to their families, it would be reassuring to know that a resort room was available for them if they got sick. In a stressful time for these protectors, it’s a meaningful way our community could express our appreciation to them.