Where's the plan? Las Vegas business owners want to know when city will reopen
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — As many eager business owners wait for Governor Steve Sisolak to reveal the details of his plan to re-open Nevada, Arts District business owner Derek Stonebarger says he hopes that includes some kind of tentative date he can mark on his calendar.
“Telling us a date is very important from a business owner perspective,” he said. “There are a lot of things that need to be prepared and a lot of things that need to get in line in order to reopen and in order to reopen safely.”
He says it’s okay if it is tentative, he understands the ever-changing nature of the pandemic. He just asks the leadership gives them some lead time if the date needs to change, so they don’t incur any further financial losses.
“He’s had a lot of difficult decisions and I know that he’s done his best to decipher all of the information and make what’s best for the public interest,” he said. “Pick a date, but also, if you pick that date, don’t change it two or three days before. You’ve got to give us at least a week.”
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He says he’s confident his business has a future, due to the way he pivoted to adapt to the new rules. But he knows many of his neighbors throughout the Valley aren’t feeling the same way as he is.
“Now that I’ve created a new business that can sell goods and groceries and liquor items safely to people in a drive-thru, my business is saved. I’m no longer scared whatsoever,” he said. “I’m able to shut off my business and turn it back on now, like that. But that’s not the case for so many other business owners.”
But the social distancing that has come from the closure of so many places throughout the Valley seems to be helping, according to Dr. Michael Johnson, the Director of Community Health for the Southern Nevada Health District.
On Monday, the SNHD reported 58 new positive COVID-19 cases in Clark County, and no new deaths. On Sunday, they reported the same figures.
“We appear to be possibly reaching a plateau, which is very different of course than being on the other side of a peak in a decline. We’re not really there yet, on the decline, but we may be reaching a plateau,” he said. “But, it is encouraging, and what it does suggest is that social distancing appears to be working.”
Johnson says in order to re-open the state safely, in his mind, would mean they have the ability to do widespread testing, and they’d need strong figures indicating there is in fact, a plateau or decline.
“We’d also like to see a 14-day trend of either cases plateaued or a decline in cases,” he said. “I think it does need to happen in a gradual fashion with people still practicing social distancing.”
The recent numbers, a promising start to the week. But Johnson says he needs to see more before he can say whether this is indicative of a plateau or decline, or, not as indicative as people may think.
“Things do appear to be leveling off right now but I’d caution that statement with as I mentioned some of the lag in reporting of case and so on. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some blips up and down here and there,” he said.
