Sisolak: COVID-19 vaccine may start arriving in Nevada in next couple weeks

Gov. Steve Sisolak said Wednesday that initial supplies of COVID-19 vaccines may begin arriving in Nevada in the next couple of weeks.

But he cautioned that those doses will only be available to priority workers — starting with front line health care workers and first responders.

He said Nevada isn’t seeing a downturn in any of the metrics they measure as numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to grow faster than in the previous surge in July.

“The positivity rate is the highest we’ve seen to date,” he said.

“Most concerning, our numbers do not include any surge from Thanksgiving,” Sisolak said.

He said if people will follow the rules by avoiding gatherings outside their immediate family, social distancing, sanitizing hands, the rate of infections will level and begin to decline. But he said that requires people to do those things.

If people don’t do that, Sisolak said , “We will be left in the unfortunate position of taking stronger measures.”

“We cannot overwhelm our health system and put countless lives in danger.”

Health officials said after health care front line workers, correctional officers and law enforcement will be vaccinated along with those in senior care facilities and their caregivers. They said vaccinations for the rest of the public may be available in late spring.

Sisolak said those who are 65 and over should assume they are infected if they gathered in crowds this Thanksgiving and get tested. He said those 40 and over should make the same assumption and get tested immediately.

Unfortunately, Sisolak said Nevada doesn’t know how many doses of the vaccines the state will receive and when.

He said they have been assured that the first doses will be followed by shipment of the second doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Both require two shots for full protection.

“I stress to the general public that things are getting a lot better,” he said, adding that, within weeks, Nevada will be distributing vaccines.