With the help of the governor, Nevada casinos are hoping to draw back customers with the safety of vaccinated employees. Gov. Steve Sisolak has announced resort employees will have priority access to Cvodi-19 vaccines, putting them in the “Tier 1 lane.”
This puts casino employees in at the same priority as other essential workers, including government employees and teachers, but also including food-service and airport workers. Making up more than 25% of Nevada’s workforce, adding resort workers to the Tier 1 group makes that group pretty big indeed.
By prioritizing the casino industry, the hope is that Nevada’s struggling economy can make a faster recovery, something gambling officials agree with. Virginia Valentine, president of the Nevada Resort Association, said the move will “will accelerate the consumer confidence needed to drive the visitor volume our economy depends on.” Candice McDaniel from the state Department of Health and Human Services agreed, noting the employees are “essential to our ability as a state to be healthy and to recover.”
There’s a pretty clear strategy to who’s getting vaccinated here. If a visitor can land at an airport where employees are all vaccinated, and then show up at a resort where they can dine and play with vaccinated employees, the general fear of Covid is removed. Valentine noted this offers a “significant competitive advantage” over other destinations.
“The more Nevadans are swiftly vaccinated, the sooner our transmission rates decrease across the community,” she added. “We believe this will provide peace of mind to visitors and influence their travel decisions against other communities where the rates of vaccination among front staff would be less certain.”
To get a vaccine, workers need only apply online. Although with 25% of the workforce trying, it may take a few tries and some patience to get a spot.
Getting employees inoculated against Covid-19 is an important step to stabilizing the Nevada economy. A rush of visitors for New Years Eve had local employees concerned that things might once again spiral out of control. Large crowds of visitors were not wearing masks as advised, which seems like a great way to share any virus you have to start 2021.
