The mayor of Las Vegas said that the ongoing lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak is 'total insanity'. Carolyn Goodman on We...
The mayor of Las Vegas said that the ongoing lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak is 'total insanity'.
Carolyn Goodman on Wednesday called on Nevada's Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak, to lift the closures imposed on nonessential businesses.
'This shutdown has become one of total insanity in my opinion, for there is no backup of data as to why we are shut down from the start,' Goodman told a City Council meeting on Wednesday.
'No plan in place how to move through the shutdown or how even to come out of it.'
The mayor, who self-identifies as a political independent, said she spoke with experts who told her that the coronavirus or something similar will 'be part of what we work through going forward.'
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told a city council meeting on Wednesday that the closure of nonessential businesses during the coronavirus lockdown is 'total insanity'
'We cannot keep our heads in the sand and think it's going to go away,' she said.
'We're adults with brains who can know what to do to wash our hands, to take all precautions not to spread this disease.'
Goodman said that the ongoing lockdown is 'killing us already' in that it has strangled the city's convention and tourism industry.
'The longer we wait to do this the more impossible it will become to recover and return to the home we all know and love,' she said.
On April 1, Sisolak issued stay-at-home orders for all residents of Nevada.
The governor also extended closures of schools and nonessential private businesses until the end of the month.
Sisolak said on Thursday he intends to detail next week some of the criteria he'll use to determine how soon it's safe to slowly start reopening businesses and relax other restrictions as coronavirus trends continue to improve in Nevada.
But he said any changes will be incremental and insisted he won't succumb to pressure from critics demanding reopening of casinos and nonessential businesses for short-term economic gain or provide a specific timeline of when that might happen.
'I'm putting the lives of my fellow Nevadans ahead of dollars,' Sisolak said as the mayor of Las Vegas and others continued their criticism of the extended closures that began in mid-March.
'We will reopen when the time is right,' he said Thursday night at the state capitol building in Carson City.
'It's not as easy as flipping a switch.'
Nevada's Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak said on Thursday that he will reopen the state 'when the time is right'
The Las Vegas Strip is empty on April 3 after the governor ordered a mandatory lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic
People check in prior to entering a temporary homeless shelter set up in a parking lot at Cashman Center amid the coronavirus pandemic in Las Vegas on April 1
Sisolak said the good news is that most Nevadans are heeding his call to stay at home and practicing social distancing.
'It's working. On many metrics we are doing a good job,' he said.
More than 3,300 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 137 have died in Nevada.
But the rate of increase in those numbers has slowed this week and the percentage of hospital beds filled with patients has steadied over the past 10 days.
About four out of 10 acute care beds statewide remain empty, as do about three out of 10 in ICU units.
Washoe County's joint response team announced Thursday it was putting on hold plans to open a temporary facility in the days ahead with 500 to 750 beds at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in preparation for a potential surge of coronavrius patients.
But concerns about the economy continue.Reno Regional Medical Center says it already has 700 beds ready in a makeshift facility in its parking garage, with another 700 ready to go if needed in the coming days.
Federal officials reported that a whopping 60,180 more Nevadans filed for unemployment benefits last week, and state Senate GOP Leader James Settelmeyer said Sisolak had a duty to share with Nevadans whether he'll extend the existing closure order past April 30.
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