LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Early rumors indicate Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak will move to end the mask mandate. He is scheduled to speak on Thursday.
The numbers suggest Clark County really isn’t close to meeting standards set by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sisolak set course to follow the CDC’s guidelines last summer as the delta variant took hold.
Little has changed since. The county made it to its goal for test positivity on Oct. 12, 2021, and maintained it for 74 days. But the daily case rate foiled any hopes of the mask mandate’s end, and by Christmas Eve, COVID was climbing again.
What’s needed to end the mandate
A look at the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services data shows Clark County currently at 23.9% test positivity — about three times the 8% goal for “moderate” risk of transmission, according to the CDC. The other factor, the daily case rate, shows Clark County at “high” risk, with 185.2 cases (measured as a 7-day average, per 100,000 population). To hit CDC goals, that number has to be under 50.
The trajectory of the curve is promising, but CDC guidelines say the goals must be met “for two weeks in a row.” The requirements are set out clearly in a Tuesday news release from Nevada Health Response.
If the curve continues to decline as fast as it increased, Clark County is still about 10 days away from getting to 8% test positivity, and then would have to maintain it for two weeks.
At minimum, that’s a three-week wait-and-see. And given the history of the virus, anything could happen.
But what change would Sisolak possibly announce? A target date? That’s no problem at all as long as it’s a month away. Reports indicate that other state leaders are talking about the end of March. A date like that doesn’t appear to be much of a gamble.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that we’re exiting the “full-blown-pandemic phase” and entering a phase when more decisions will be made at the local level. Nevada is already at that point, having transitioned to giving counties the authority to make their own decisions as of May 1, 2021.
A political question
But politics has a way of changing things quickly. The instant that California announced it planned to end its statewide mask mandate, Republican candidate for governor Dean Heller’s campaign put out a news release hammering Sisolak.
“Something is very wrong when you’re even more radical about mask mandates than Gavin Newsom,” Heller said. Heller promised to put a halt to mask mandates.
Other Republican candidates have been less vocal, but still critical of Sisolak’s stance on masks.
Patience was wearing thin a year ago as “COVID fatigue” became a common description of Nevadans’ frustration with rules. Now, it’s common to see outright defiance of mask rules at stores and other indoor settings.
Long seen as a vulnerable candidate, Sisolak might be looking for a political way out of the mask argument.
