The COVID-19 pandemic has created profound worldwide social and economic uncertainty as it has spread around the globe. Without a vaccine or herd immunity among humans, the novel coronavirus has infected 2.5 million people around the world, including nearly 4,000 in Nevada. In response to growing caseloads and lost lives, nations, states and local governments have enacted extraordinary measures to limit person-to-person contact and stem the virus’s spread. These measures have been effective in protecting public health yet devastating for the economy.

Nevada’s stay-at-home commitment has been among the best. State residents have been particularly successful in limiting their movements throughout the community, cutting travel to workplaces by 53 percent, retail and recreation by 45 percent, and parks by 43 percent, according to an analysis of location tracking data by Google.

The measures appear to be working. The number of COVID-19 deaths has slowed, and new modeling by scientists at the University of Texas projects Nevada to reach peak COVID-19 caseloads in April. The extraordinary efforts to stem the looming public health crisis might have been effective, but they have also triggered an unprecedented economic crash that has already left hundreds of thousands of Nevadans jobless.

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