COVID-19 cases in Nevada are finally starting to level off after a summer of escalating worries about the delta variant.

Are enough people getting vaccinated to thwart another wave?

The state is about to get billions in federal dollars.

Now state officials want you to weigh in on where that money should be spent.

The eviction moratorium is back in place for now, but questions remain about whether it applies to renters in Nevada.

And... (cheers and applause) More people are saying "I do" after delaying their 2020 wedding plans, and Las Vegas wedding chapels are cashing in.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

(Kipp Ortenburger) After months of watching the number of COVID-19 cases climb, some recent metrics show cases are leveling off somewhat, but Clark County reached a grim milestone this week.

Southern Nevada Health District reported that more than 5,000 people in Clark County have died due to COVID-19.

Now, the Health District also announced that nearly 300,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the U.S.

There's more than 600,000 people reported dead from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Well, joining us to talk about Southern Nevada's progress on vaccination rates are Cecia Alvarado with Mi Familia Vota, and Christina Madison with Roseman University.

Welcome both of you.

We really appreciate you being here again on the show.

Some very encouraging news, test positivity rates going down, but at the same time maybe some discouraging news where we still haven't reached our vaccination benchmarks that we were supposed to reach over two months ago.

Cecia, I want to start with you.

What stands out to you on the data and where we are?

(Cecia Alvarado) My first impression is we're getting there.

We're getting there.

Any progress that we make, we're better off than we were two weeks ago, a few weeks ago.

I think that as we're progressing we're learning, so this is helping us improve and do better as the days go by and the weeks.

-Christina, let's talk to you about this.

We had you on the show about a month ago.

We were at a different position then.

We saw the rises happening, but it was just kind of in those first stages.

One of the things we talked about with you is the amount of outreach that was being done at that time, and then of course that we need to go to the next level of outreach which was really going door to door.

What are you seeing?

What stands out to you on the progress that Cecia is mentioning here?

(Christina Madison) Yes.

I mean, I think the biggest thing is that fear is a motivator.

So delta I think has really helped ramp up vaccine efforts.

I mean, we had tons of pop-ups available, people just weren't going to them, right?

At this point we know that pretty much every American lives within five miles of a place that they can get vaccinated, which is incredible if you think of that, right?

And as a public health advocate, it makes me smile but it also is a little sad because people aren't utilizing these amazing tools that we have, and these deaths that you just mentioned are completely preventable.

So again, I think as Cecia just mentioned, you know, we are doing better, right, and that progress is key but we need to do more.

-Let's go back to those events that were a lot of incentives, you know, bands and celebrities and things like that going.

I mean, because of the fear, have you seen a change in the amount of activity and the amount or number of people that are getting vaccinated?

-Yes, we definitely have seen an uptick, but not quite as much as we would like, right?

So we're still at like right at 50% for fully vaccinated and about 60% for partially vaccinated, and now that we're seeing recommendations coming from the CDC for possibly giving a third dose to the immunocompromised and potentially now a booster dose being needed for people who were vaccinated back in December of 2020 and January of this year, we need to get the people who haven't even started vaccinating, right?

That's the key, and that's why delta came, right, was because we still had a vector for this virus to mutate and change.

And what we don't want is for the virus to outsmart our vaccine.

-Big concern here, and that is a big concern if we continue with where we are with our vaccination rate that we could see other variants beyond delta; is that correct?

-Absolutely.

We're already seeing lambda and some other ones as well in some other countries.

-Yes, we'll get back to the booster in just a second.

Cecia, I want to talk to you.

We've had you on the show before to talk about census.

We've had Mi Familia Vota on also to talk about get out the vote, and registering voting, particularly in the Latinx community, and now you've taken a lot of that work and you've put it towards getting the Hispanic community vaccinated.

What are you seeing?

Are you seeing a better response over the last couple of weeks?

-Absolutely.

Mi Familia Vota launched our campaign in the beginning of June, and we expected it to be a very small campaign and focused on just education.

But as we were knocking on those doors, we are also learning the challenges that our communities are facing.

It's not just that I don't want to get vaccinated.

Our question to our communities when we're knocking on the doors is what can we do to help you?

What can we do for you to get vaccinated?

What are the challenges that you're facing?

So collecting our own data and coming back and reassessing our own programs.

But having those one-on-one conversations with our community, going into their homes, knocking on their doors and letting them know that we're here to support has actually been key to get a lot of our Latinx community, especially in East Las Vegas vaccinated.

-And what are you finding?

Let's talk about some of those challenges then.

I mean, there's no more boots on the ground is what you're talking about here.

What are some of the challenges or concerns you're confronting?

-Well, the main concern that people have is the lack of access of healthcare.

We've come across families that haven't visited-- haven't seen a physician in years, so the question is am I healthy enough to get this vaccine?

I don't have the resources to go to a doctor.

I haven't seen a doctor for five or six years so I don't know if I'm healthy enough, and that is a legitimate concern.

so what we're doing is inviting healthcare physicians to be at our vaccine events, and we're calling them and letting them know that the physician will be inside in case they have any questions.

-I mean, that blows me away, Christina, because this is so much of a bigger issue here.

The hesitancy for vaccine has to do well beyond just the trust of the vaccine.

Are you running into that as well?

-Yes.

Unfortunately, we've seen that this pandemic has really, you know, shone more light on the health disparities, inequities, that were already existing.

As you've clearly mentioned, we've got people who haven't been able to access the healthcare system for months and years, so this pandemic just exacerbated that, right?

And so again meeting people where they are, doing events like what you're doing, which is amazing, having in-language services, which I think is just so incredible.

When you are able to speak to somebody in their native tongue, it makes much more of a difference than speaking to them in English, right?

So when we have someone who looks and sounds like them, it makes all the difference.

-Let's talk a little bit about the mix of policy here and what the strategy is, and I want to mention Clark County right now is looking at potentially doing a pilot where they're going to give $100 for a vaccination.

I don't know if Moderna then would be 200 if you're doing both or exactly how they're going to work that out, but it is interesting.

We've seen incentivizing with money before.

First off do you think that's the right type of policy?

Could that potentially close the gaps, especially in some of our disparate communities right now?

-So I think it's twofold, right?

In some instances that may be enough to incentivize someone, and I do think that, you know, that $100 could be the difference between somebody being able to pay their full rent and maybe not being able to pay partial rent, especially as we're now seeing evictions even though the moratorium was extended.

That's definitely an issue.

But I do see, especially in the Black community, that it's actually turned people off, that it's like why do you have to pay me?

Why do you have to give me things?

Is there something wrong with this vaccine?

Why are you having to give me these things to make me get it, right?

So I think we have to be very careful, and again really being very mindful about answering people's questions because not everyone's vaccine journey is the same.

They may just have, you know, an instance where they just want their questions answered and really doing that, you know, boots on the ground, one-to-one, answering questions and having somebody they like and they trust to be able to answer those questions.

So I just think it's super important for us to not picture everyone with a broad brush, because everyone's different.

It could be because of lack of childcare.

It could be because they're worried about feeling sick after and not being able to go to work, right?

All of these things, especially if they don't have a primary care provider, who are they going to see if they feel bad after they get the vaccine?

So we have to address all of these concerns, and we have to do it individually.

-Really great points, and you've already addressed how important it is, the outreach and the education in what we're doing.

We've seen some of the gaps.

We've seen some of the disparities we saw even a couple of weeks ago, particularly in the Hispanic communities, Black and African American communities to close a little bit.

What do you think is key there?

I mean, is it just that educational component?

-I think--and Christina, exactly.

Every community has different concerns, and every community is going to react different to incentives, to messaging, right?

And I think it's good that we try everything.

It's good that we try everything because some of our communities don't have the luxury to take a day off.

That means that they're losing income if they take the day off to get vaccinated or to, you know, in case of a reaction, to call in sick at work.

So in my case, I feel that the $100 incentive is going to help them.

They see it more as okay, well, I'll take the day off, $100 will cover that loss of wage for the day.

So it would definitely add-- those type of incentives do help, you know, at least in our community because we are seeing that some of those concerns they have is the fact that they just don't have the time to go get vaccinated, even if it's within five miles of their home.

You're working two to three jobs.

-Great points all the way around, and I think what's really important is the mix between policy and the outreach is really key here.

Thank you so much to both you.

Well, of course I want to thank our guests Cecia Alvarado with Mi Familia Vota and Christina Madison with Roseman University.

Now, in an effort to combat some impacts of the pandemic, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan which puts billions into Nevada's coffers.

Now state leaders want to know where that money should be spent.

Earlier this week, I spoke to Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine about the listening tour he is on right now to find out where Nevadans want to see that money spent.

Treasurer Conine, thank you so much for joining us again.

We had you here virtually, and it's such a pleasure to have you in person.

I want to get right into American Rescue Plan funding, and I say it that way because there's a lot in the name.

There is no recovery in this title, there is no relief in this title, so let's talk about what "rescue," and then I think of course what "plan" means here with respect to how this funding can be used in our state.

(Zach Conine) So we see it at the state level as frankly an unprecedented opportunity to take on challenges and fix things that have been broken in Nevada since the 1860s.

-Can you elaborate a little more on that?

I mean, what exactly can the money be used for?

Is this just kind of a free-for-all?

-Well, it's certainly not a free-for-all.

It's money from the federal government, so it has plenty of rules attached to it.

For instance the $2.7 billion in state and local relief funds-- 2.7 is what we got in at the state level, 1.04 is what they got at the city and county levels.

That has 150 pages of interim final rule, which by definition isn't the final rule.

The information came out on how we could spend it on May 17, and it's been revised about 12 times since then.

So it's deeply complicated but we are focusing less on the complexities of the work and more on the opportunities of the work.

-Let's talk about those opportunities, and I think a very interesting part of this discussion is these Nevada Recovers listening tours that are happening right now, 75 cities that you are going to and towns I should say, all across Nevada.

What is the intended outcome of these listening sessions?

-We realized early on in the process that an unprecedented amount of money deserved an unprecedented response, that this decision shouldn't be made by just the governor, a few members of the legislature, myself and others sitting behind closed doors.

Talking to the White House, talking to the federal treasury, it is very clear that the intent of this money is to fix long-standing problems, and in order to identify long-standing problems, in order to identify the best ways to fix them, we have to go talk to every Nevadan.

Now, we know some of those conversations are easier than others, right?

There are some parts of the state that probably aren't super happy to see their government showing up and asking for input, but that's okay because we want to make sure we include every voice and every Nevadan.

-Now, let's talk about that.

I'm assuming these listening sessions have started already.

-They have.

We're in week two right now.

We expect we're going to blow through 75 events, that was the target, but we're two weeks in of our call it 10-week tour and we've already had 25 or 26 events and they ranged the gambit, right?

Some of those are big rooms full of people with disparate ideas.

Some of those are chambers of commerce or county commissions or city councils, because one of the big focuses of this process is to make sure that the state is coordinated with local governments, with county governments, because we know if we work together, the outcome is going to be much better than if we each go our own way.

-Yes, and that's important to note is these aren't just public listening sessions.

We are also talking to community-based agencies.

Let's talk about that coordination and how then you're going to collect all this information, this feedback you're getting, how you're going to aggregate things that can be, as you know, anecdotal as an individual's feedback.

And then how are you going to report that back to the public and to the agencies you're talking to right now?

-Our focus is on creating the most transparent process possible, and to that end, all ideas that are going to get funded through this money go through nevadarecovers.com.

We've been collecting ideas for the last probably two months or so.

Hundreds of ideas have come in so far.

We expect by the end of this process, we'll have thousands, and they range from I'm a charitable organization, I provide safe food, and if I had three more refrigerated trucks and an additional 40,000 square feet of warehouse space, I could serve this many more people and the necessary population to serve is this big and so I'd be closing that gap.

We also have ideas that aren't baked, right?

Ideas from community members that say, I don't have access to healthcare.

I can't get to a grocery store, right?

And the second part of this process, we're actually able to resource those ideas for the first time and make them into plans.

-Got it.

Who's going to make the decisions ultimately on how this money is spent?

-Well, eventually the decisions on spending, as always, go through the legislature, the governor, and I and others are very involved in that process, but the legislature through the interim finance committee will be making the final decision which is why it's so important that the legislature, the governor, our office and the rest work hand in hand through this process to collect it, to make sure that they're not seeing some sanitized report, right?

They're seeing literally the raw information that we're getting so we can together synthesize it into a plan.

-And final question, we just have a few seconds left, but public engagement is a big part of this.

How do you get engaged in one of these listening sessions as they come into your city or town?

-Everything goes through nevadarecovers.com.

So if you go to nevadarecovers.com, you can sign up for future events, you can get involved, reach out.

If you want us to host an event for your organization, just let us know.

You can also take a survey which gives us good qualitative information, and like I said, submit a specific idea.

All of those ideas will get looked at, all of those ideas will get resourced, and together we can build the Nevada we deserve.

-Treasurer Conine, thank you.

-Thank you for having us.

-Like many community-based organizations in Southern Nevada, Vegas PBS is participating in state and local listening sessions and has requested related funding.

Now, some of the federal money is already being used for rental assistance.

Keeping people housed during the pandemic has been a big concern.

The eviction moratorium in place for months expired at the end of July, but the CDC extended it a few days later; however, questions remain about whether it applies to Nevada.

Well, joining us to answer those questions is Enrique Acuna with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.

Enrique, thank you so much for being here.

We really appreciate it.

-Glad to be here, Kipp.

-Yes.

I mean, let's get right to it.

As I just said in the intro right there, there's been a lot of debate around the CDC restrictions and whether they apply to Nevada.

Do they?

(Enrique Acuna) Well, you know, different people can have different interpretations of the law.

That is what creates the legal field, and that's what allows people to stay arguing within the legal process.

We believe generally that the CDC moratorium should apply throughout Nevada where infection rates meet the infection rate level set by that latest moratorium.

There has been some pushback from some of the courts in Las Vegas stating that the CDC moratorium does not apply because Nevada has greater protections for tenants than what's present in the CDC moratorium.

Again, it's a difference of opinion and we're not sure if that opinion is going to stay as it is.

Another judge in the Las Vegas Justice Court has given effect to the CDC moratorium in her courtroom so, you know, just trying to delineate what's going to happen has become a little more muddled.

In our opinion it should apply.

Most judges in the valley agree with us.

-Yes, and that's such an interesting part of this too, right, is there's this balance of where the courts might see this and where this might end up in being challenged by courts all the way up to the supreme level, and then of course the moratorium ending.

But it sounds like, I mean, are you noticing an increase in evictions related to this at all?

-Well, you know, we were expecting that there was going to be a flood of evictions.

The last CDC moratorium ended on July 31.

The new one was enacted on August 3, so there was a very short time period there before the new moratorium was given effect.

That may still be impacting the ability of evictions to happen.

We're seeing a huge increase in people we're helping through the Legal Aid Center either through our main office, providing assistance to tenants that have questions, that need advice on how to move forward with their cases.

Also at our self-help center, we have hundreds of people that we assist every month, and we assist both landlords and tenants in getting legal information about the process that's available for them to either move forward with an eviction or fight it.

-And that's an important part, and I think a big shift here, legislation, our last legislative session, Assembly Bill 486 passed which allowed landlords to be the ones to request this relief.

So are you seeing more traffic and more guidance you are giving to landlords right now, and what are they saying?

-Well, I think unfortunately, for the most part when a landlord is reasonable and rational and is thinking about the bottom line, then it makes absolute sense that they would apply for renters assistance on behalf of their tenants.

You know, we just had a couple people murdered last week by a landlord who was so frustrated by not getting rent from his tenants that, you know, he took the law in his own hands.

So I think that's becoming a bigger issue, especially as we're going back and forth.

You know, is the protection there, is it not there.

There's some emotional turmoil that people are dealing with, and that makes it harder to get the word out on what protections are available for tenants and landlords so they could get access to that money to pay this back rent and to keep these people in their households.

-That might be one of the assumptions too is that an extension on a moratorium, if we already have individuals at risk, have not paid rent for a month, that it might not just prolong the inevitable, that it might put them in a deeper hole.

There could be more months of rent missed and things like that.

The clients you're talking to or the concerns you have and maybe the clients you're not talking to, is this a big concern that the moratorium could be then extending the risk and heightening the risk?

-Well, the bottom line is, you know, we're seeing a resurgence of the delta variant, so there is a public health concern in keeping people in their households, but financially there may be some impacts.

Our number-one advice to all tenants is apply for rental assistance.

Number two, file CDC moratorium documents with their landlord; if they get a notice, answer it and look for help.

You know, we're here to help, we're able to help them, and we'll do so.

We have multiple ways that we could help.

We could help in person, by text message, through the chat feature, in person at the Regional Justice Center, and we're here to provide assistance to make this as easy as possible for people.

It can be overwhelming.

Again, things have been going back and forth so much that people don't know what to believe or what's coming down the road legally.

So we can help them clear up that confusion and help them understand exactly what steps they need to take to protect themselves and their family from eviction.

But there's still tens of millions of dollars available in rental assistance, and that's got to be the first part of solving this problem, using that federal money to pay back rent and, you know, and we need it for the economy.

The landlords need that money so we can keep our economy moving and growing.

-Now, when the vaccines arrived and COVID case numbers started to trend down, weddings returned and the wedding capital of the world reaped the rewards.

The Nevada Week team checked out one of Las Vegas' wedding chapels.

Weddings are back in Las Vegas.

-Plese give your gorgeous wife a kiss.

(cheers and applause) New Yorkers Crystal and Gavin Foster picked Las Vegas as their wedding spot.

Honestly, I chose it; he didn't have a choice.

-It's the wedding capital of the world.

How could you go wrong?

A few friends and family joined them to celebrate.

My cousin right there actually booked her flight the day before.

They just came out to support us.

Thank you guys.

2021 is a much different year for weddings than last year.

Like just about everything else, 2020 was tough for wedding venues and vendors.

With limits on capacity and concerns about COVID-19, many couples either put off their nuptials or got married but moved their party to this year.

(Kristina Banks) It's been really fun because we're just seeing all the brand-new couples who have quarantined together.

So they're still really fresh, but they've gone through so much already.

We're seeing a lot of like mature couples who are still very new to each other, but the way that they've experienced each other and the world is a totally different new perspective.

So it's really fun to get them married and hear their stories.

Kristina Banks is a wedding planner for Vegas Weddings in Downtown Las Vegas.

She spent 2020 figuring out options for couples in a world dominated by the pandemic.

Obviously there's high stress situations, but at the end of the day, you tell us what you need.

We're full service.

We're going to make it happen.

Now that the domestic wedding biz has mostly returned to normal, Banks is getting ready for a tidal wave of international clients who are standing by for border restrictions to be lifted.

We're waiting for that day because there's a flood coming in.

As for the newlyweds Crystal and Gavin, their next stop is the post-wedding party.

Party Las Vegas style!

-Yeah!

(laughter) For Nevada Week, I'm Natalie Cullen.

-Well thanks, Natalie.

And thank you, as always, for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also find us on social media at @nevadaweek.

Thanks again, and we'll see you next week.

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