Michael Luisi, 65, waits in line for a COVID-19 vaccine at the Elaine K. Smith Center in Boulder City, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021.
Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The COVID-19 vaccine is starting to reach smaller communities outside the Las Vegas core.
Near the banks of the Colorado River in Laughlin, a ballroom at the Aquarius Casino drew seniors and the highest-prioritized front-line workers eager for vaccines this week. So did a Mesquite fieldhouse known as The Barn.
And a line formed outside a municipal building in Boulder City, in the crisp morning chill when the air still smelled like wood smoke from the burning hearths of the night before and birdsong sounded louder than traffic.
Boulder City had the distinction Monday of being the first city in the area to open vaccines to the general public from ages 65-69 — an incremental but notable step as the still-limited resources become more localized.
Clark County launched its communitywide inoculation efforts on Jan 14. Boulder City held its first local clinic Jan. 25 and since then has administered about 1,100 shots to people who live or work in the town about half an hour south of Vegas. It started advancing younger seniors on Feb. 1.
Jan Leider, who retired to Boulder City from Chicago, was looking forward to resuming the life of travel she used to lead. She had trips to Hawaii, Arizona and a cruise to Panama planned for 2020. She also has seven great-grandchildren to visit in the Midwest.
She was one of the first in line at 8 a.m. sharp, standing on a socially distanced marker on the entryway to the Elaine K. Smith building on Wyoming Street. Her 67-year-old husband, newly qualified for a shot, had an appointment for later in the day.
“Hopefully, if enough people do it, we can travel, we can see our family in the Midwest, eat in restaurants,” she said.
Michael Luisi, a 65-year-old retired electrician with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, waited right behind Leider. He wore a KN-95 mask, the best available outside of hospitals, while waiting for his shot. He’s also looking forward to visiting family, the “sooner the better.”
Bruce Woodbury, of longtime Clark County Commission service and the namesake of the 215 Beltway, was getting his first shot along with his wife, Rose, before starting his workday. Woodbury, 76, still works as an attorney. His second shot was already scheduled.
“We have a lot of grandchildren who are anxious to get back to school,” he said of the pandemic’s needed, eventual control.
For her part, Rose planned to take the children on a ski trip to Brian Head, Utah, when it becomes possible.
The line moved efficiently, with a firefighter helping with paperwork outside before recipients reached the shot stations.
“Everybody cares about everybody” here, Leider noted.
In some ways, Boulder City — population of nearly 16,000 — is like any large metro during the vaccine rollout, which has been rocky nationwide since the first shots landed in mid-December. The former Hoover Dam company town hit a rut in its vaccine road this week when the Southern Nevada Health District cut its expected weekly allotment of 1,600 doses to 400. This forced the city to reschedule 340 appointments, said city spokeswoman Lisa LaPlante.
Weekly allotments are overseen by the health district and can shift based on area need, LaPlante said. A health district spokeswoman said the city’s allotment was less because “we did not receive enough doses from the federal government to support all vaccine activities in Clark County for the week.”
“We understand that jurisdictions across the state and country have had to adapt to the lower supply of the vaccine until the supply chain improves,” she said.
In Laughlin Wednesday, Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft checked in on the first day of vaccine operations inside the Aquarius.
“We wanted to come down and make sure the process is going smoothly here at the Laughlin COVID-19 vaccination clinic. I’m really glad to report that it is,” said Naft, who represents the area on the commission.
A coalition of local first responders and the Southern Nevada Health District planned to inoculate 2,000 people in this town of about 8,000, about an hour south of Las Vegas, over a two-day stand. Appointments filled quickly, Naft said.
“We want everybody who’s interested and willing and able and who qualifies under the state guidance to go ahead and get vaccinated,” he said.
Noel Petrohilos, 70, was one of those people. “It’s a step in the process to getting our lives back, you know,” he said.
COVID-19 vaccine appointments are available in Laughlin and throughout Las Vegas at https://covid.southernnevadahealthdistrict.org/vaccine/distribution/.
Boulder City residents must call Boulder City Parks and Recreation at (702) 293-9256, Monday-Thursday between 8 a.m.-3 p.m. to make an appointment.
Mesquite residents can make an appointment at www.vaccinatemesquitenv.org/.
