How Las Vegas Is Handling the Coronavirus Outbreak

Several famous Las Vegas resorts and casinos have closed their doors as coronavirus continues to spread throughout the country.

The Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Luxor, and Excalibur — which are all part of MGM Resorts International — as well as Wynn Las Vegas and Encore have all temporarily closed. This move follows the closing of several famous buffets in the city.

On Monday, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. topped more than 3,800, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracking of the virus. Twenty six of those cases have been recorded in Nevada.

“This is a time of uncertainty across our country and the globe and we must all do our part to curtail the spread of this virus,” Jim Murren, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We will plan to reopen our resorts as soon as it [is] safe to do so and we will continue to support our employees, guests, and communities in every way that we can during this period of closure.”

Murren added the casinos will close Monday and the resorts will close as of Tuesday while future reservations won’t be taken until May 1. The company told employees on Friday they should expect layoffs and furloughs, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

For its part, Wynn Resorts — which closed two of its hotels — committed in a statement provided to Travel + Leisure to pay all full-time employees while the resorts are closed. The doors will shut on Tuesday evening and are expected to stay that way for two weeks.

Caesars Entertainment, whose Las Vegas properties include Caesars, Harrah's, and Bally’s, told T+L in an emailed statement on March 17 it would close all its North American properties. Their casinos are currently closed while the resorts will close tomorrow morning.

This comes several days after other similar resorts and casinos took the same precautions.

“It has become clear that we must take this extreme action to help contain the virus and protect the safety and well-being of our team members and guests,” Caesars Entertainment CEO Tony Rodio, said.

Their Atlantic City location previously confirmed that they will close following New Jersey's ruling to close casinos, bars, and restaurants.

“This decision is a precautionary measure only, made to ensure we are in compliance with local rules and regulations,” the company said in a statement to T+L.

Additionally, in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters in a news conference that all casinos would be closed as of Monday night. And Caesars Entertainment closed several of its resorts in other states, including Harrah’s Hoosier Park Racing & Casino in Indiana.

Tourism in Las Vegas has been hit hard by the spread of the virus and messages to avoid non-essential travel from the CDC and State Department.

“It’s a challenging time, there’s no question,” Steve Hill, the CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told the Las Vegas Sun last week. “The impact on business happened very fast. From a budgetary perspective here at the LVCVA, we know there will be a reduction in revenue over at least the next couple of months.”

The information in this article reflects the above publishing time. However, as statistics and information regarding coronavirus rapidly change, some figures may be different since this story was originally posted. While we strive to keep our content as up to date as possible, we also recommend visiting sites like the CDC or websites of local health departments.