Thank you to all who tuned in tonight for my press conference laying out our Nevada state-specific plan when it comes to getting back to business. You can watch the full press conference here:

Before we get to the 1st phase of our reopening plan, we must make sure we meet criteria set out by the federal government & our team of Nevada experts. We are monitoring the criteria now, & once we have cleared this stage, we can begin the first phase of getting back to business

Nevadans heeded the calls, followed the directives, and saved lives.  The actions we all take going forward will determine if we continue with this success, or if we take a more obstructive path.

Even though the models look good for Nevada right now, we are not out of the woods. The models change based on our behavior. We are in a better spot than we were 6 weeks ago, & we’ve got more data to help us move forward as we work on our plan to re-open the state’s economy.

You’ve heard me say this a lot: the lives of Nevadans are more valuable than profit. That remains true, but I also understand what the cost has been. We now want to move into a phase where saving lives and restarting our economy are not mutually exclusive.

As I’ve said, we could flip the switch and turn the lights back on, but our experts predict – and experience in the world shows us – if we don’t do this in a controlled and informed manner, we’ll be hit like a tidal wave in two to three weeks. And I won’t do that to our State.

We have flattened this curve because of our human behavior. The virus still remains, and will remain until doctors find an approved treatment and develop a vaccine.  So, the emergency is not over yet, but has entered a new phase.

This overview is not the full re-opening plan. We knew that our first step had to be setting strong criteria that we must check-off before beginning Phase 1 of re-opening.

Due to the criteria developed by the state team and in accordance with the White House guidance, I cannot give you a firm date as to when we will meet all this criteria and begin Phase 1 re-opening plans.  If we continue on this path, the date is on the horizon.

This is atypical. The re-opening needs to be flexible, because it’s going to rely on data and the virus. There is going to have to be some real-time decision making if we see a spike in cases and I will update Nevadans along the way as we monitor our progress.

In alignment with the federal government criteria and after extensive discussions with Superintendent Ebert, I have made the difficult decision to continue educating our students through distance learning for the rest of the school year.

We will continue our efforts to support teachers, staff, students and families throughout this academic year and I am grateful for Superintendent Ebert’s leadership and coordination with our superintendents to provide innovative resources across the state

So, this is the start of our plan. Based on the guidance of Nevada experts and federal government criteria, we will focus on making sure we are prepared for Phase One. Once our re-opening criteria are satisfied we move into Phase One as laid out by the federal government.