As Las Vegas gets back on its feet, COVID-19 cases rise

Tourists are returning to Las Vegas, 15 months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the gambling revenue of the city has hit an all-time high already. Large concerts are back and all in all, Sin City seems to be coming to life again.

But despite all this progress against the deadly coronavirus, to celebrate which the White House organised “America’s Back Together” tour,  the threat from the disease is yet to die down.

The state of Nevada has seen the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country this week and the number of hospitalizations is rising again. Delta variant has become the most prevalent form of the virus in the state and the state is scrambling to get more people vaccinated.

Also read: Low vaccinated US areas will see COVID surge due to Delta variant: Anthony Fauci

Despite all that, Las Vegas is witnessing large crowds of unmasked visitors and the casinos are in no mood to tell their visitors to mask up. The vaccinated people are allowed to shun the masks but nobody seems to be bothering about asking for any proof, the Associated Press reported.

“It seems like everything is opening back up, getting back to normal,” AP quoted a tourist as saying. Another tourist said that it did not feel as if there was a pandemic anymore.

Las Vegas lifted the COVID restrictions on businesses on June 1 but most of the casinos had already returned to full capacity before that. The number of tourists to the city has consistently grown for a few months now although it is yet to touch the pre-pandemic heights.

Nevada’s diagnosis rate per 100,000 people is higher than that of states like Missouri, Arkansas, and Wyoming, all with lower vaccination levels than the western state, for two weeks now. The delta variant has been detected in almost half the COVID-19 cases, according to the state public health lab.