Good evening, Nevada. Thanks for joining me tonight. Follow along with my press conference here...
As your Governor, I've been immersed in the fight against COVID for nearly 5 months, along with all of you. Day after long day, along w/ leaders from around the State, I’ve sought solution after solution to keep Nevadans safer, businesses operating & workers on the job
It’s a balancing act- walking a tightrope between the health of our residents & the financial stability of your families and our State. Protecting lives & livelihoods is like dancing on the head of a pin, & it requires daily monitoring, adjustments and enforcement.
Like so many other states, Nevada has been severely challenged since the outbreak of COVID-19, and in the month of July our case count, hospitalizations and sadly, fatalities, have all been on the rise.
Recently, we've started to see some positive signs in our data, including a potential slow & gradual flattening out in both cases and hospitalizations. We believe this progress is a result of the previous mitigation measures we have put in place, like mandatory face coverings
Today, Nevada’s “R effective,” dipped under 1.0 slightly to 0.98, which is a good sign. This measures the average number of people who become infected by a person who has COVID-19. When the “R effective” is under 1, it means the virus is not spreading as much.
While these are encouraging signs, it is too soon to know if the state is experiencing an ongoing trend or if our recent numbers are just a small blip. Either way, the reality is that in our current situation, Nevada still has a high prevalence of COVID-19.
2 weeks ago, we established the elevated risk transmission criteria for counties looking at 3 key statistics: the avg # of tests per day, the case rate & the test positivity rate. We looked at these figures over a 2 week time period and controlled the criteria for population size
Seven counties that met two or more of the criteria were considered at risk and needed to take the additional mitigation efforts of closing bars, pubs, taverns and wineries to slow the spread of COVID-19....
Based on our two-week review of the data, the list has shrunk to four counties: Clark, Elko, Nye and Washoe. At this time, those four counties will stay with these mitigation measures for the next week.
Humboldt, Lander, & Lyon county have shown enough improvement on the existing criteria to return to the statewide standards – meaning pubs, bars & taverns can reopen at 50 % capacity while maintaining social distancing & mandatory face coverings. This goes into effect immediately
Over the last 5 months, we have learned a lot about how best to analyze this data and tackle this disease. For example, in the last 2 weeks while reviewing data using this criteria, we saw several smaller counties frequently move on and off the list. We need more consistency...
That’s why I wanted to let Nevadans know tonight that over this next week, the Nevada Health Response Team is working to finalize a long term mitigation strategy for the state of Nevada, that I will be rolling out next Monday.
I believe this plan will help us achieve two important goals:
1: With this new plan, no business, local govt or individual should be surprised by future actions, as the trends, good and bad, will be announced regularly and the resulting actions will be clear.
1: With this new plan, no business, local govt or individual should be surprised by future actions, as the trends, good and bad, will be announced regularly and the resulting actions will be clear.
2: It invests all of us in this fight – together. Those who want to keep our restaurants, gyms and other activities open can do their part to make that happen. Those that don’t will be responsible for further restrictions.
The new, long term strategy will include the following key components. First: updated criteria. One of the goals includes working with DHHS to develop more in-depth, data driven criteria to better identify the presence and spread of the disease throughout our state
We are looking to adjust our current criteria so it better follows overall trends, minimizes the week-to-week or day-to-day fluctuation for counties, & better demonstrates which counties are getting progressively better or worse.
Second: Predictability. One of my main goals is to create a long-term system of mitigation levels that will allow our businesses and residents to have advanced notice and understanding on what direction their county could be heading based on updated criteria.
Third: Enforcement. Ensuring businesses and communities enforce our mitigation efforts are key in helping reduce the spread, which is why our long term strategy will have the goal of stricter enforcement of our safety rules.
This will include measures that aim to ensure that business establishments who serve unmasked patrons may be closed if it’s a pattern of non-compliance, and that non-compliant resorts could have part or all of their property closed for a period of time.
I am proud of the work state OSHA has done to enforce existing measures, and I also want to thank the county partners who have increased enforcement and done their part. To those not actively helping, we look forward to working with you this week to help you step up.
To put it bluntly: the time for education is over. Businesses, Nevadans & visitors should all be familiar w/ the expectations of reduced indoor capacity, required face coverings & social distancing. We are close to 5 months in – no more excuses.
Finally, targeting. Another key component of this long-term plan will be more specific targeting in our mitigation efforts.
Just as we have transitioned from statewide interventions to looking specifically at county-level data, my goal is to soon look within those counties to see if there are municipalities or certain zip codes we need to target more specifically with mitigation measures.
Similarly with economic sectors within our state, we want to transition to targeting specific businesses that may be experiencing outbreaks vs. Industries as a whole, unless those industries as a whole are shown to pose an incredibly high risk of spread.
I believe most of our businesses and communities have made great efforts to be as safe as they can be, and targeting problematic areas will help protect the good actors.
I'm excited to also announce the formation of an advisory group, which will be led by Caleb Cage, our Statewide COVID-19 Response Director.
This group, made up of agency directors in charge of enforcement, public health and more, along with local government and hospital representatives, will be responsible for reviewing the criteria, data, and progress each week.
They will work directly with local county officials, including the LEAP, on enhanced enforcement, focused targeting and next steps to reduce the spread. They will be critical in helping to finalize and ultimately implement this long-term strategy.
I want to thank Caleb and Julia for holding daily press calls to brief the media and provide more context on our situation. Going forward, I will join them at least once a week to share additional news and updates.
We continue to encourage Nevadans to take precautions against the spread of this disease, including staying home when possible, practicing social distancing, washing your hands frequently and wearing a face covering.
