RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak will be tested for coronavirus and work out of his Las Vegas office indefinitely after a positive COVID-19 test came back Tuesday for one of his staff members working at his office in the state Capitol in Carson City.
The staffer has not had in-person contact with the Democratic governor since mid-September, his communications director Meghin Delaney said in a statement Tuesday.
Sisolak departed northern Nevada on Sept. 17 and has been working from Las Vegas since then, she said.
He was scheduled to return to Carson City next week but his travel “is on hold until all test results for northern Nevada team members are received and the environment has been deemed safe,” the statement said.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the governor will also be seeking a COVID-19 test this week,” she said.
The staff member who has not been identified was last in the Capitol office on Friday. He or she was tested over the weekend after experiencing symptoms and was confirmed as a positive case on Tuesday.
All staff who worked in that office in the past two weeks and came into contact with the staff member transitioned to work-from-home status on Monday, Delaney said. She said they all are being tested this week and must test negative via a diagnostic test before reporting back to the office next week.
The announcement Tuesday marked the first public disclosure of a member of Sisolak’s staff testing positive for COVID-19.
The neighboring legislative building housing the Senate and Assembly closed for a day during a special session in July after Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Brenda Erdoes announced a lawmaker had tested positive.
Sisolak canceled a news conference he had scheduled in Carson City in late May after he learned he was potentially exposed to the coronavirus a week earlier when he visited a workplace where a worker subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
The governor showed no symptoms at that time and underwent a test that came back negative.
In other COVID-19 developments Tuesday, the city of Sparks canceled its annual Christmas parade, and the Carson City District Attorney’s office has been closed to the public because of positive tests to an undisclosed number of staff members.
The University of Nevada, Reno, also announced the Wolf Pack’s season-opening football game against Wyoming will be played without fans on Oct. 24 and that the campus fitness center will be closed for the rest of the semester.
Sparks officials said it marks the first time the annual Hometown Christmas parade has been canceled since the popular holiday tradition began 34 years ago. Sparks officials say they still plan to light the city’s Christmas tree for the holiday season. But there will be no public ceremony usually held at Victorian Square.
UNR officials said the E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center will be closed for the remainder of the semester as of 5 p.m. Thursday because of an increase in the number of students testing positive for COVID-19 on campus.
Attendance at the football game will be limited to family members of student-athletes and coaches in accordance with the Washoe County Health Department’s 250-person cap on public and private gatherings, school officials said.
“Although we have done an extraordinary job of fighting the spread of virus on campus by wearing face coverings, social distancing and using good hygiene, off-campus activities have contributed to the spike in positive cases on campus,” UNR President Brian Sandoval said in a statement Tuesday.
Sandoval, the former Nevada governor who assumed his new position this week, said that “being part of the Wolf Pack means that we must all make sacrifices for the greater good of our community and university.”
“These shared sacrifices to defeat COVID-19 are not always pleasant or convenient, but they are necessary,” he said.
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