Good afternoon my fellow Nevadans. We are at a critical point in our State, and I have important updates to share with you all. You can view the live stream of my updates here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3DFs2YeOMbAbY7XPqsereQ

On Friday night, the FDA granted emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine and this morning, the Western States Panel tasked with reviewing the vaccine signed off as well. We anticipate receiving the first shipment in the State early this week.

The State team has worked closely with our partners. Plans are in place to distribute the 1st allocation of the Pfizer vaccine to our frontline health care workers for immediate vaccination, & staff and residents in our skilled nursing facilities as soon as possible.

As new developments on the vaccine and the vaccination process unfold, we will work to keep Nevadans posted on any updates and news.

We continue to see an increase in hospitalizations statewide with almost 1,700 Nevadans in the hospital battling COVID as of Friday. I want every Nevadan to have access to care & our healthcare workers have done everything in their power to make sure they are there for you.

Almost 3 weeks ago NV entered a Pause which implemented incredibly strict mitigation measures in an effort to both protect lives & our fragile economy. Gatherings are limited. Capacity is limited to 25% at many businesses, including restaurants, bars, casinos floors, & gyms.

I spoke recently about how we must create a bridge between our current situation & when the COVID vaccines become widely available. We know the tools to get us across the bridge. Avoid gatherings, limit exposure by staying home as much as you can, wash you hands, wear your mask

In a report from IHME, at the University of Washington, they estimated that as of November 30th, 74% of Nevadans always wore a mask when leaving their home. More importantly, the report noted that if we got that number to 95% -- we could potentially save 1,000 lives by April 1st.

I know the mitigation restrictions in place under the current “Pause” are devastating to many Nevadans who just want to go back to “normal.” Who are worried about their jobs, their businesses, keeping their homes, and getting their kids back to school.

But as I’ve said for 9 months now – we must do what we can to protect the health & safety of the public. That remains more important than ever as we experience these record numbers.

That’s why today I am announcing that we will be extending the restrictions in place under the current “Pause” in Nevada for the next month – through January 15th.

We will be evaluating our current situation everyday. But if officials & experts agree that our trends are going beyond our ability to respond, I will be forced to come in front of all of you again with tougher actions. I believe we can avoid that if we all commit to it.

I’m announcing one more public health mitigation measure -- something that will help keep Nevadans in the safest place they can be -- in their homes. Tomorrow, I will sign a directive that will place a moratorium on most residential evictions in NV.

We are now in the depths of our most significant and dangerous surge of this health crisis & with an impending deadline to be able to use federal assistance for tenants, I must reinstate a moratorium to ensure Nevadans can stay in their homes during this critical stage.

As I have been clear from the start: this moratorium DOES NOT relieve renters from their obligations to pay rent to their landlords. The State has already created and provided lease addendums where landlords and tenants can work on repayment solutions together.

State public health officials have expressed concern over families & individuals being evicted. My COVID-19 Medical Advisory team formally recommended reinstatement of an eviction moratorium to reduce increased community transmission caused by displacement and homelessness.

With the extension of this pause, the evictions moratorium, the cooperation of Nevadans and a vaccine on the horizon, I am hopeful we can continue to stand together in this fight against the virus. We are fighting the virus, we cannot fight one another.

There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about the great balancing act that Nevada faces, and how the tightrope we must walk is more pronounced here than in any other state, due to our economic structure.

Some say we’ve gone too far – some say we aren’t doing enough. I understand both sides. The last 9 months have been full of decisions with no winning options – leaving us to determine which choice would lessen the blow the most. I know that, and you all know that.

But early last week I received a report from the WH COVID Task Force which included recommendations for mitigating the spread. It became clear to me that the federal government has yet to grasp what is so evident to all of us about the complexities of our current situation in NV.

One of their recommendations said:

“Despite the severity of this surge and the threat to the hospital systems, many state and local governments are not implementing the same mitigation policies that stemmed the tide...that must happen now”

This is a very stark departure from their messages and actions over the last 9 months that contradicted and undermined recommended mitigation measures touted by respected public health officials throughout the country.

But nonetheless, I agree with them. The problem we have is that the mitigation policy that most successfully “stemmed the tide” in Nevada was our complete shutdown. And for the WH to send that recommendation without including a big check for Nevadans is out of touch and offensive

A shutdown is unrealistic without additional support. And I realize I owe it to all those Nevadans who may be monitoring our COVID trends right now and wondering why I don’t move in that direction. So let me explain....

I have said repeatedly that we are trying desperately trying to balance public health & the impacts to our economy. When I say "economy," I mean our families – their ability to feed their kids, to keep the lights on, to keep a roof over their heads, to earn a paycheck...

And right now - our families and countless Nevadans are teetering on the brink.

In our first months of the pandemic, Nevada lost 250,000 jobs – reaching an unemployment rate of 30.1% -- the highest level ever reported by any state in modern history. For reference, during the Great Recession, Nevada lost approximately 180,000 jobs over nearly three years.

Unemployment benefits are established for a full year, and due to the pandemic nearly 142,000 Nevadans have completely exhausted that eligibility, with the vast majority unable to file again until mid-March 2021 or later.

This is a stark difference from the spring when the additional assistance from the federal government helped many of Nevada’s most vulnerable workers displaced by COVID receive unemployment benefits that replaced roughly 100% of their lost income. That reality no longer exists.

In the spring, at the time NV & other states were under stay at home orders, many individuals, families & businesses had savings accounts that helped hold them over. The State had a savings account – the rainy day fund. And we had also just received robust federal support...

As of today, none of those things exist. Personal savings accounts have been depleted. The State emptied it’s rainy day fund to address our massive budget deficit. The funding we received through the federal CARES Act is set to expire at the end of this year.

To return to full stay-at-home restrictions w/o the savings & assistance we had in the spring would put us in a position that would be as bad or worse than the Great Depression. That means a return to historic unemployment & demand for public assistance, & no funds to pay for it

If we could write a check to every Nevadan right now to provide them the ability to stay home and stop the spread, I would. But we can’t.

I want to talk bluntly about gaming & hospitality. I know it’s hard for Nevadans to reconcile why some areas of our economy and public life are restricted while the State’s casinos are open. I get why it’s hard to reconcile that fact, and I want to talk honestly with you.

The gaming industry are under the same restrictions as many of our small businesses, and in some cases, even tougher restrictions. Restaurants and bars in casinos face the same capacity limits as those in our neighborhoods. Gaming floors have been reduced to 25% as well.

In fact, under the authority of the Gaming Control Board, the gaming industry is arguably the most regulated industry in the State – they hold privileged licenses. They must follow strict mitigation directives and face tough consequences if they don’t.

And I think it’s important to make this 100% clear: when I think of the gaming industry, I am not losing sleep at night because I'm worried about their stock prices or whether gaming executives are going to make it through the pandemic and be able to keep a roof over their heads.

I lose sleep at night because when we were under a stay at home order in the spring, we lost a quarter of a million jobs in three months in this State...and that’s largely due to casinos being closed for 78 days straight.

These are the folks we are fighting to protect -- it’s the hundreds of thousands of Nevadans who take pride in showing up for work every single day & the ability that gives them provide for their families. If we take that away, the bottom falls out for our entire state.

And here's why else gaming matters to this State: if we have to shut down again, the State loses an estimated $52 million in gaming tax revenue a month. That doesn’t include room tax, live entertainment tax, and more.

When I say revenue, I mean the $ the state has to give direct assistance to Nevadans in the form of schools, public & mental health, food banks, & more. It helps fund the critical services we rely on – the safety net we need. That’s what’s been devastated due to this pandemic

I want to remind you all, when I first entered office and put together a budget for the 2019 legislative session, that was the first time in ten years that our state budget reflected a recovery from the Great Recession.

It took 10 years for the State to claw back from that. And here we are now, at another inflection point. I certainly don’t want to lose another 10 years or more trying to claw back to where we were prior to the pandemic.

So when I talk to you about what the State is going to do and about revenue, unemployment & safety, it's not lost on me that the decisions we make today and how we handle this balancing act right now will have generational impacts.

This balancing act includes factors that too often get lost in the larger debate, but are just as important. This week, it was reported that Nevada has seen a 50% increase in opioid and fentanyl-involved drug overdose deaths from the first to the second quarter of 2020...

That's startling, Nevada. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence it’s happening in the middle of this pandemic.

Prioritizing our economy or our health is a false choice for our State. If you don’t have a job, if you can’t provide for your family, if you lose your home, if the State has no safety net to help, people will not be healthy. These aren’t binary choices.

I never have and never will deny the severity of this virus - this virus has posed a threat unlike anything we have seen before, and for the last 9 months I’ve consistently explained the risk we are under. I’ve relied on the science. I’ve listened to public health officials.

Like many other Nevadans, I wake up in the morning thinking about COVID-19 and it’s the last thing I think about at night. It is constantly on my mind. The loss of life is devastating. So many families have been forever changed because of the terrible impacts of this virus.

More than 9 months ago, the federal government handed the States the responsibility of dealing with this global pandemic. They told the states to deal with it, so we did. We have navigated this pandemic through shared sacrifice and with the grit & perseverance of our communities.

For 9 months the state has been on the frontline of this war against COVID – and for 9 months we’ve heard that reinforcements and air cover is on the way...just hang tight. But we don’t see any planes flying overhead.

Every day I wake up to a new headline about how those in charge in DC aren’t able to compromise on getting desperately needed funding to states. I don’t understand why there is a general philosophical objection to funding state and local governments.

And if Senator McConnell doesn’t think people need assistance, he has an open invitation to Nevada anytime to walk through the halls of our hospital COVID units. Visit a homeless shelter that’s full of families that had a home just months ago.

When he opposes money for state and local governments, he opposes money for food, for unemployment, for healthcare.

I hope and pray that Congress listens to us and our federal delegation who are fighting for more funding for our State, but if we’ve learned anything over the last 9 months, it’s that we have to figure out how to get through this on our own.

If we don’t, that will lead to further restrictions that decimate our economy for generations, or we continue down this path of massive loss in a public health crisis.