Las Vegas hotel-casinos top locations of potential COVID-19 exposures

The Southern Nevada Health District released an August report that shows the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas topped the locations of possible COVID-19 exposures in previous months. 304 people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 visited the hotel-casino prior to their positive test result, but it does not mean that they contracted the virus during that visit.

Four other hotel-casinos rounded out the top 5 and the Clark County Detention Center came in at number 6, KTNV reports. The Bellagio came second with 153 cases, followed by MGM Grand (133), The Venetian (89), and Caesars Palace (86). The rest of the top ten included Aria with 72 cases, Mandalay Bay with 67, Wynn Las Vegas (65), and the Saguaro Detention Center (63).

According to the report, hotels and motels are at the top of the category list for high risk of transmission, with 1581 cases. The next highest category is "Other" (1361), which represents businesses that do not fall into the other categories. And the 3rd highest was food establishments, which includes restaurants and grocery stores.

On Thursday, Wynn Resorts reported that 348 of its workers had tested positive. All of the hotel-casinos in the Las Vegas valley have implemented some sort of testing and/or screening procedure for their employees and have taken steps to protect their employees and guests.

Also on Thursday, Nevada's COVID-19 Mitigation and Management Task Force also revealed a connection between positive cases and Las Vegas Strip. During their task force's weekly meeting, Julia Peek, deputy administrator with Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, said 26% of people infected in Clark County over the past 30 days mentioned visiting a hotel, motel or resort. She also said that 12% of those infected visited a "food establishment" like a restaurant or grocery story.

Peek also said that it does not mean that the person was necessarily infected by visiting a hotel/motel or food establishment, just that they revealed that information when contacted by a contact tracer.

Clark County and the Southern Nevada Health District also released a statement on Friday after the report was released. They said that it is is important to emphasize that the information provided in the report released by the state does not identify locations where cases were determined to be exposed or clusters of COVID-19 in the community. And noted that places with a higher amount of foot traffic or more employees may be reported as possible exposure locations more often.