In a brief statement, the company Encore’s hotel and casino will reopen seven days a week, along with other amenities, including restaurants. The property’s spa is available with revised schedules.

Encore was one of several Strip resorts that closed during the middle of the week last fall due to a decline in visitation late in the year. Conferences, tradeshows, and conventions canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a spike in positivity numbers in Nevada caused state leadership to increase capacity limitations on casino floors to 25%.

Last week, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak increased capacity on casinos and other public spaces to 50%, following an increase to 35% a few weeks earlier, after cases of COVID-19 declined significantly in the state.
Shortly after the governor’s announcement, MGM Resorts International reopened Mandalay Bay, Park MGM, and The Mirage to midweek operations.

Over the weekend, large crowds stirred talk Monday about a coronavirus pandemic recovery arriving along with the college basketball fans, spring breakers, and pool partiers who found increased capacity limits at casinos, restaurants, and businesses.

“Clearly, there is untapped demand for Las Vegas from consumers across the country,” Alan Feldman, a fellow at the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told the Associated Press. “We need to be certain that the infections and infection rates don’t spike in the community so that we can continue to expand occupancy limits.”

COVID-19 sent the Las Vegas gaming and tourism market to record-setting lows in 2020. The year included a 78-day shutdown of all gaming activities. Casino revenues fell to their lowest levels since 1996 and visitation was its lowest figure in more than 30 years.

Scenes of people packing the resort-lined Las Vegas Strip, the downtown Fremont Street casino pedestrian mall, and McCarran International Airport provided stark contrast from places deserted during COVID-19 shutdowns a year ago.

The NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, which drew thousands Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to sports betting books and to a downtown casino rooftop with multiple heated swimming pools arranged around a huge screen showing every game.

State health officials and Dr. Mark Pandori, head of the state Public Health Laboratory, said Monday they were optimistic that, amid increased numbers of vaccinations, Nevada would not see another surge of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. But, “it’s hard to use the word ‘confidence’ when there are variants circulating,” Pandori said.

More than 301,000 cases of the virus have been reported in Nevada since the pandemic began, and 5,174 deaths.

Sisolak, a Democrat, last week announced that vaccine eligibility will be widened on April 5 to everyone ages 16 and older. Those with underlying health conditions became eligible at state-partner pharmacies on Monday.

Caleb Cage, head of Nevada’s coronavirus response effort, noted the state’s 14-day test positivity rate dropped Saturday below the World Health Organization target of 5% for the first time since June. The figure – 4.8% on Monday – peaked at more than 21% in Nevada in January. It measures the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected.

On the streets and in the casinos some people wore masks, and some did not.

Las Vegas police reported no disorder of the kind that prompted Miami city officials to impose a curfew and curtail spring break traffic in that city’s South Beach area.

“Las Vegas, like other places in the country, is hoping for recovery,” Officer Larry Hadfield, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said Monday.

Clyde Barrow, a gambling industry expert and professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, observed that “as more and more people are vaccinated, more and more people are going to feel comfortable traveling and … in crowds.”

By Sunday afternoon, clogged vehicle traffic backed up for 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) on Interstate 15, the return driving route to Southern California.