Decision to make masks mandatory is best for Nevadans and our visitors

Friday, June 26, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Bravo to Gov. Steve Sisolak for making Nevada the 17th state in the country to mandate the wearing of face masks in public.

But also, hats off to Caesars Entertainment for leading the way in the private sector and enacting a mask requirement on its own Wednesday, just hours before Sisolak instituted the state mandate.

The actions by both Sisolak and Caesars will protect Nevadans and our visitors, and will benefit the state’s economic recovery.

With cases rising in Las Vegas over the past couple of weeks, it’s critical to do all we can to avoid another massive outbreak.

That became increasingly clear this week with the release of a survey showing that travelers are growing more wary of taking trips amid the uptick nationwide in coronavirus cases.

The weekly survey of 1,200 travelers across the U.S. showed that about half expected the outlook to worsen, up from 34.7% the week before. Conversely, only 21.5% of respondents said they expected the situation to improve, versus 33.6% the previous week.

That’s having a chilling effect on visitation to Las Vegas, as members of the Nevada Commission on Tourism noted while examining the survey during a meeting Tuesday. After experiencing higher-than-expected demand at the outset of business reopenings, things have dropped off.

“That information has started to cause the numbers that we have seen improving, primarily around intent to travel, start to deteriorate a little bit,” said Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, during the meeting. “We have regressed a little over the past three weeks, and that’s simply driven by the health situation and the health concerns of our potential visitors.”

Needless to say, a continued slide would only make matters worse for our recovery. And another round of closures would be disastrous.

Las Vegas faces a hard and steep road to recovery. Although our unemployment numbers improved this month, we’re still at a painful 29%. Our tourism economy is operating well below capacity, and likely will be for many weeks to come.

The healthier we can keep the Strip and the entire community, though, the more we’ll appeal to visitors and the faster we’ll move forward. The masks in resorts are a thing of beauty, as they’ll protect people around the wearer from being coughed on, sneezed on or otherwise subjected to the tiny bits of spittle and foam that carry COVID-19 from person to person. Even talking and breathing in close proximity can spread the disease, so masks are vital.

Wearing a mask might seem a bit awkward in some settings, but that’s a small price for individuals to pay to protect those around them.

Caesars has distinguished itself on this front. It set the gold standard with its mask requirement, which came just days after the company doled out $20 in free play to visitors wearing masks at all five of its open properties in Las Vegas.

Sisolak’s statewide order was a perfect follow-up.

Predictably, Nevada’s cases had bumped up in the two-plus weeks since casinos reopened, but we still haven’t reached the alarming levels of outbreaks in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona. With the new requirement, we avoided one of the mistakes made by leaders in those states.

That said, facial coverage alone won’t beat the coronavirus. It’s critical for Nevadans to continue practicing social distancing, good hand washing, self-quarantining when necessary, etc.

So mask up, Nevada. It’s the responsible thing to do for our guests, ourselves and our economy.