Steve Sisolak at Golden Knights opening night on October 10, 2017

Gov. Sisolak Drops Indoor Mask Mandate For Public Places In Nevada

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has caught up with Vegas Golden Knights fans at T-Mobile Arena — he’s ditching the COVID indoor mask mandate.

For those attending Golden Knights home games, you’re quite aware that most VGK fans stopped wearing masks inside the arena during games quite a while ago even though there was a state indoor mask mandate.

On Thursday morning, Sisolak also caught up with other Democratic governors from Connecticut to California in dropping the indoor mask requirement that was implemented to try and stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed 911,000 Americans.

Even Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and General Manager Kelly McKrimmon stopped wearing masks at VGK home games.

Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley and General Manager Kelly McCrimmon

Foley’s sports and entertainment operation posted this statement for Golden Knights and Silver Knights games. The truth is most VGK fans had already stopped wearing a mask at home games.

The Raiders and the UNLV basketball team required fans to show proof of vaccination to attend home games. After showing vax proof, these fans did not have to wear a mask inside the respective venues.

UNLV said the proof of vaccination for Runnin’ Rebels home games is no longer required and people can attend with or without masks regardless of vaccination status.

Sisolak suspended the mask mandate that was put into effect last July because fewer people are being hospitalized now compared to the number of people hospitalized during the Omicron surge.

But people at airports and on airline flights will need to continue wearing masks.

“I want kindness to be just as contagious as COVID,” Sisolak said.

He noted there are divergent medical opinions about indoor mask requirements vs no requirements.

The feds — the CDC — still believe masks are required for the indoors.


 

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.