Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Mayor Carolyn Goodman had COVID-19, urges residents to get vaccinated

Anthony Stravos Appointed Mayor Pro Tempore

Wade Vandervort

Mayor Carolyn Goodman attends a City of Las Vegas council meeting at City Hall, downtown, Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

Updated Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 | 1:35 p.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman tested positive for COVID-19 in July despite being fully vaccinated.

The 82-year-old Goodman, in opening today’s city council meeting, said she only experienced minor symptoms and quarantined for 10 days. She thanked Mayor Pro-Tem Stavros Anthony for filling in for her at the July 21 meeting.

Goodman declined to comment further when asked why she waited to disclose she had tested positive for the virus. And although Nevada brought back an indoor mask mandate last week, Goodman often didn’t have a mask on during the council meeting.

She urged residents to get their vaccine, saying she received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

“I’m out there all the time, probably inappropriately hugging and touching people all the time, and that’s how I choose to operate,” she said. “Because of the new restrictions, and in order to be super sensitive and asking everybody if in fact it’s in your purview, please get vaccinated to help keep everybody safe.”

In April 2020, just over a month after the pandemic led to widescale shutdowns in Nevada, Goodman drew condemnation from local officials for publicly pleading for casinos and nonessential businesses to be allowed to reopen and to let her city serve as a test case for COVID-19.

Goodman said in an interview on CNN that Las Vegas has seen viruses for years and she suggested that its residents become “a control group” to determine how the easing of closures and restrictions would affect the city and its people.

“We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against,” she said at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.