LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced last week that mask were no longer required for people who are fully vaccinated, Las Vegas didn’t hesitate to get the word out and start making changes.
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With June 1 approaching, do medical experts think it’s too soon?
More and more people are walking around inside and outside with a mask. Is there still a need to worry?
UNLV School of Public Health assistant professor Brian Labus (PHD, MPH, REHS) says, "We have the same concerns we’ve had any time we have reopened anything in the community. As we have more interaction between people, there is more potential for spread. If you throw in some variants that spread more easily, we could see small spikes in disease but with a lot of people being vaccinated, but we shouldn’t see the same amount of transmission that we saw previously."
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This new phase we are in is relying heavily on the honor system.
"To not wear a mask and not be vaccinated puts the entire community at risk. Everybody has to do their part to stop this pandemic," says Labus.
COVID-19 puts us in a strange position. There’s really not much precedent, no real history to learn from when it comes to emerging from this pandemic.
"The only way to find out is to do it and see what happens, unfortunately. We can take all the steps we possibly can to keep things under control, including vaccinating people and having the un-vaccinated wear their mask, but we’ll see what happens as we reopen things," said Labus.
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The county announced today that capacity limits will go back to the way things were pre-pandemic. Fully vaccinated people can go out without masks with a few exceptions.
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