With Buy-in From Rural Counties, Nevada Starts First Phase Of Reopening

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced the state will begin lifting COVID-19 restrictions sooner than expected. 

“We will enter Phase One on Saturday May 9, before the current stay at home directive would have expired on May 15,” he said Thursday. 

This stage of Nevada’s Roadmap to Recovery allows for nonessential businesses like barbershops, salons and retail outlets to open their doors. And restaurants will be able to offer dine-in service again, too. But Sisolak explained there also will be some new requirements to make that process as safe as possible.

“Retail businesses shall limit the number of customers in their facility at any given time to no more than 50% of the allowed occupancy based on applicable firecodes,” he said. 

Restaurants will also be required to space tables six feet apart and use reservations whenever possible to help ensure social distancing.

Those stricter limits on customer density will also apply to essential businesses, like grocery stores, which didn’t have them before. Employees who work with the public will also be required to wear masks now, although customers are merely encouraged to do so.

Notably, the state’s casinos will remain closed at this point in the process. Bars that don’t serve food, movie theaters and gyms are also banned from reopening for now. 

Phase One — and every step that follows in the plan — will last at least two weeks, so officials can evaluate their impact on Nevada's outbreak.

The recovery plan was developed with input from the Local Empowerment Advisory Panel, which includes county-level elected officials tasked with seeking feedback from local leaders around the state. According to Clark County Commission chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrck, who represents urban communities for the panel, they wanted to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions. 

“We made sure that all of the counties had a voice in any statewide standards that we crafted,” she said. “There are different things across our state that make us unique.”

To that end, county officials are able to keep stricter standards for reopening in their jurisdictions if they think it’s necessary — but they won’t be allowed to make restrictions looser than those defined by the state. 

According to J.J. Goicoechea, who serves as Chairman of the Eureka County Commission and represents rural communities on the advisory panel, their efforts came in the nick of time. 

“We were right on the breaking point of some of these rural counties and some of these constituents just saying, ‘The hell with it, we’re gonna open. We’ve got to move forward, we can’t afford to stay closed anymore,’” he said.

In California, rural counties like Yuba and Sutter have bucked the state’s guidance and allowed non-essential businesses to reopen, prompting criticism from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Goicoechea says his efforts at communicating with his rural peers kept them invested in the process. 

Goicoechea says the plan’s flexibility is also important because the balance between public health and economic needs looks different in every community. 

“It was critical that we did have representation that these rurals felt comfortable talking to,” he said.

According to Kirkpatrick, the next step in the state’s plan to reopen was driven by public health concerns as well. 

“In Phase One we needed to be able to meet the federal criteria of the downward hospitalizations, we needed to increase the testing,” she said.

She added that Nevada is on track to be able to test 4,000 residents per day, with a target of 10,000 per day by June. Sisolak said in addition they’re expanding testing criteria, too. 

“They will all be able to get tests now if they’ve been identified as either a symptomatic or asymptomatic patient,” he said.

According to a recent NPR investigation, however, the state needs to test more than 5,000 people every day to be able to control its outbreak.