Nonessential businesses that defy closure order face fines, police action

By John Sadler

Published Friday, March 20, 2020 | 2:17 p.m.

Updated Friday, March 20, 2020 | 3:53 p.m.

Gov. Steve Sisolak signed a new emergency directive today for the closure of nonessential businesses and gave local governments the authority to enforce it through fines, license revocations and, if necessary, police action.

“I hoped it would not come to this. I did not want it to come to this. But to protect all Nevadans, this is necessary,” he said during a video news conference.

Sisolak, who Tuesday ordered all casinos and nonessential businesses closed for 30 days, issued a new directive with more teeth.

He granted local governments authority they do not now have to impose civil penalties, including fines and license revocations, against nonessential businesses that refuse to close.

“If businesses defy this directive and stay open, state and local law enforcement will have the ability to treat this as a criminal act after all other options have been exhausted,” he said.

The directive goes into effect at midnight and will remain in place until April 16. Delivery, pickup and drive-through service will still be available at restaurants. Sit-down dining isn’t allowed.

Sisolak warned that the virus, which has already claimed two lives in Nevada, “is going to get worse before it gets better.”

Without taking more aggressive action, the outbreak could turn into a crisis that will “overwhelm our hospitals, put our health care workers at a higher risk of exposure, and test the limits of our medical system,” he said.

Without calling anyone out by name, Sisolak said “some are saying these actions will devastate our economy” but “we will choose to face the facts, listen to the medical experts, ignore the misguided leaders” and hope to “cut this thing short.”

When asked which leaders he was talking about, Sisolak said they “know who they are.”

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on Wednesday blasted the 30-day business shutdown, saying it would “cripple” the local economy and calling on Sisolak to cut it to eight or 10 days.

Goodman compared the coronavirus, which has been declared a pandemic, to other disease outbreaks that didn't cause business closures, such as the swine flu and Zika virus. “Believe it or not, we’re still here," she said.

So far, 109 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Nevada, including at least 74 in Clark County, where two people have died from the disease.

But Nevada does not have enough test kits to know the full scope of the outbreak, Sisolak said.

The state has begged the federal government for additional test kits and supplies but received notice Thursday that all its requests are “on an indefinite backlog without any estimate of a timeline for delivery,” he said.

“This is our unfortunate reality, Nevada. It’s up to us,” the governor said.

“It feels like the world has turned topsy turvy. But if, and only if, Nevadans come together and put each other first, we can turn the world right side up again,” he said.