LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Los Angeles County health officials are suggesting that residents reconsider visiting Nevada, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The recommendation was made during a meeting of the county board of supervisors on July 13.
Nevada isn't the only state on their list. They are also asking their residents not to travel to Missouri, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana -- all states with the nation's highest levels of new coronavirus cases per capita.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, almost 43 million people visited Las Vegas in 2019 -- 18% or 7.8 million of those visitors were from the state of California.
Although figures for 2020 are not available at this time, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that many Californians are visiting Las Vegas since people began to feel safe about travel.
According to state health officials, the state of Nevada had 154 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week. Additionally, 3 new daily deaths on average have been reported over the past 14 days.
By contrast, LA County is reporting 59.2 new cases weekly for every 100,000 residents.
As of July 15, there were 771 confirmed and suspected hospitalizations and 159 of those involved people in ICU with 88 of those on ventilators. 46.68% of Nevada's population has initiated vaccinations and a total of 2,595,728 doses have been administered.
LA County announced Thursday that masks would be required indoors from both the vaccinated and unvaccinated beginning Saturday. At this time, California is considered as having "moderate" community transmission.
People who have been vaccinated are generally well protected from the coronavirus. However, the more a person is in contact with the virus, the higher the chance is that they could become the victim of a "breakthrough" infection, which is when a vaccinated person still gets the virus.
At this time, unvaccinated residents account for nearly all new infections in Nevada. Vaccinations are also up in the state of Nevada -- 32% since the state launched Vax Nevada Days, which rewards prizes to those who have been vaccinated.
The Southern Nevada Health District recommended masks for indoor public places on Friday morning.
There are multiple vaccine clinics happening in the next few days in Las Vegas, including the Viva Vax Vegas event on Saturday at Park MGM. People who receive their shots at that event will be eligible for Las Vegas football packages, boxing packages and tickets to see Bruno Mars.
