Yikes. Anonymized cell phone data shows 26,000 visitors to Las Vegas were also in 48 other states in a 4 day period in July. This makes contact tracing maddeningly difficult. A vistor who has COVID-19 could spread it here in Vegas, or get it here then bring it home. They are supposed to report to the casino they stayed at if they tested postitive upon returning home. Yeah, like that’s going to happen with any regularity. This is of course made worse by Mah Rights knuckleheads bellowing they have a god-given right to die a horribly painful death, so long as the libs are owned.
And hello southern California, I see you are still visiting us, probably mostly by I-15, which maybe should now be nicknamed the COVID highway. Ditto for plane flights to / from Los Angeles and Vegas.
Contact tracing in Vegas is a problem
Unfortunately, Las Vegas has no standardized contact tracing, nor does the US government. So, the crucial job of tracking down how people infect / get infected is problematic. As in, ain’t to happen in anywhere close to the numbers it needs to. If we we had a functioning executive branch of the federal government we would have leadership on this. But that will have to wait until Biden gets elected.
Good luck trying to do contact tracing where visitors go here. Stay at Sahara. Pop up to Wynn to check that nice new restaurant, then to the Shoppes at Palazzo for way upscale shopping. Then Fremont Street to see the light show and freaky street performers. And a selfie at the Fabulous Las Vegas sign. Mix in Uber / Lyft / cab rides, lots of gambling, snacks, and drinking. Then you go home, discover you have COVID-19. There is really no way to contact trace who you might have infected here.
COVID isn’t going to magically go away. We need to work at it. Using science.
During the four-day period, about 26,000 devices were identified on the Las Vegas Strip. Some of those same smartphones also showed up in every state on the mainland except Maine in those same four days.
Hertin said the virus presents an overwhelming contact tracing challenge. Its incubation period is up to two weeks, so by the time it’s discovered in a tourist who came to Las Vegas, the person would probably be home. It’s “pretty much impossible” to identify the source of the cases.