Within days of Las Vegas’ official reopening in early June, Covid case numbers had begun trending up, and within weeks some events around the city were getting canceled. Once Las Vegas reached the highest infection rate in the country among major metropolitan areas, and once 13 cast and crew members at a local hotel tested positive for the virus, Jaynes shut the union hall doors again — 11 days after reopening them…

After its halting reopening and a summer of Delta, Las Vegas has become a case study in just how difficult it will be to fully reopen America’s services sector — and especially its entertainment, tourism and hospitality industries, the ones fueled by in-person activity — as long as the pandemic remains an active threat. Services account for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and growth in that sector will be crucial to a robust recovery across the country. But without broader uptake of the vaccine, cities everywhere risk entering into the brutal boom-and-bust cycle Las Vegas is currently enduring: a celebratory reopening followed by near-immediate illness and death. Pull back, mask up, reset, reopen, repeat…

When Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, following CDC recommendations, brought back mask mandates to the Strip, it began losing business from both sides of the spectrum: those who stayed away for fear of catching the virus, and those who canceled plans because they didn’t want to have to abide by public health rules while they were here. Even despite a surge in visitors — the city welcomed more than 3.3 million tourists in July, and gaming revenue hit a record high — it all happened fast enough that the labor market hardly had a chance to recover. Unemployment here remained close to 10 percent in July — nearly double the national average and the highest of any major metropolitan area in the country. As of Sept. 10, the entire state of Nevada was back under an indoor mask mandate.