LAS VEGAS (AP) – A New Year’s Eve event at an indoor casino mall in Las Vegas, expected to be attended by at least 14,000 people, could be a superspreader event flooding hospitals, members of Nevada’s coronavirus task force said Tuesday.
Nevada COVID-19 Response Director Caleb Cage said plans for the annual Fremont Street Experience event could hamper the state’s ability to control the virus amid the continued surge in hospital admissions.
“It seems very much that the city has worked really hard to get around the spirit and letter of the guidelines as they are written to protect us,” he said.
Since November, Nevada has limited capacity to 25% or 50 people at events to control the virus. Cage said the Fremont Street event not only violated current restrictions, but would also not be allowed under the broader restrictions of the past 10 months.
The Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration denied Fremont Street Experience a permit to hold the annual celebration, but the City of Las Vegas gave the venue a special use permit so it could request access and enforce crowd control.
City spokesman David Riggleman said that by issuing a special use permit, Las Vegas did not approve any event, but acknowledged that many intended to gather in a public place and try to make it as safe as possible.
“People come to the Fremont Street Experience and the question to the city was, what was it going to do to prepare for people to come?” said Wesley Harper, the executive director of the Nevada League of Cities, speaking on behalf of Las Vegas. “When they come, let’s do a few things to make this as responsible as possible.”
Harper pleaded with officials to view the event as a “protest” that could not be stopped without violating the First Amendment. He said the $ 25 charge was not for tickets, but for a “service charge” to subsidize the cost of necessary law enforcement.
Terri Maruca, the Fremont Street Experience PR rep declined to comment.
According to the outdoor mall’s website, everyone should wear a mask at all times and stay six feet away from each other. Unlike previous years, the Thursday event will not include street performers or live music. But guests can watch a light show, see the Slotzilla Zoomline and walk the six blocks of the hallway. Guests of Fremont Street hotels are also allowed on the premises for festivities.
Marilyn Kirkpatrick, chairman of the Clark County Commission, told the state team she feared the event would push Las Vegas hospitals beyond their capacity. In Clark County, 87% of licensed hospital beds – including 78% of intensive care beds – were occupied as of Monday, the most recently available data.
Kirkpatrick said she feared it would be hospitals and their staff, rather than the New Year’s Eve street partygoers, who would pay the price for the event. While not under county jurisdiction, she said she planned to ask organizers to reduce the event to 7,000 and cancel the light show.
Las Vegas Police Deputy Chief Kelly McMahill said at a news conference on Tuesday that officers will not enforce Nevada’s mask mandate and / or social distance requirement on New Year’s Eve, but they plan to ask pedestrians to comply.
“We welcome you to have a good time, but we also don’t want to send ourselves back for months in this pandemic, where more and more people are going to the hospital and we are closing the city,” McMahill said.
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Sam Metz is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.