Nevada Says It Has Little Way of Knowing If CES 2020 Attendees Spread COVID-19 in Vegas
Southern Nevada health authorities confirmed Friday that their existing COVID-19 testing and contact-tracing protocol give them little way of knowing whether the coronavirus was spreading among the 170,000 who attended CES 2020, as an American Public Media report Thursday inferred. CTA is “not aware of any confirmed cases of COVID-19 connected to CES 2020,” said the association.
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The APM report said the positive antibody test result of one CES 2020 attendee was “the first clear evidence” that COVID-19 “was likely circulating” at the Jan. 7-10 conference. CES showgoer Michael Webber, 49, learned of his positive antibody test result Monday, it said,
Webber, chief science and technology officer at Engie, a global energy services company, ordinarily splits his time between Texas and France, said the report. He traveled to Las Vegas through San Francisco just after New Year’s, and developed flu-like symptoms soon after returning home to Paris on Jan. 11, it said. He recovered after days of self-quarantine in his apartment, it said.
“The health, safety and security of our CES attendees are a top priority, and we take precautions every year to protect our participants,” said CTA Friday. “We have not heard from any health officials, government authorities or corporate entities reporting that one of our attendees was exposed to the virus.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
The Southern Nevada Health District in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, “is not aware of any COVID-19 cases associated with CES,” emailed spokesperson Jennifer Sizemore Friday. SNHD’s “current volume of cases and contact investigations is large, and investigations are ongoing,” she said. She didn’t comment when asked to confirm SNHD hadn’t contacted CTA.
If a CES attendee who's not a Clark County resident was diagnosed with COVID-19 after returning home from Las Vegas, “it would not have been reported to Clark County but to the patient’s state or local health department,” said Sizemore. The protocol, common to local health jurisdictions throughout the country, points up the difficulty of confirming whether COVID-19 can be traced directly to CES.
Webber got his antibody test done in Austin, where he’s an energy resources professor at the University of Texas. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful about whether he wants his test results forwarded to SNHD for a contact investigation to determine if he contracted COVID-19 at CES or spread the virus to other CES attendees, if he had it in Las Vegas.
CES organizers “understand this is a difficult and unsettling time and people are concerned,” they said. “We share those concerns.” CTA encourages all “to learn about the spread of the virus and commit to cooperate, consistent with the law, to figure out how COVID-19 was spread and how we can minimize the spread of future viruses,” it said.
“Given what we know today,” CTA is taking “all precautions to ensure future CTA events are organized and executed based on recommendations by public health experts, with the health and safety of our participants as our paramount concern,” said the association. “We are encouraged that the combination of technology and medicine will create innovative solutions for pandemics such as COVID-19 and save lives.” CTA said it’s proceeding with plans for the Jan. 6-9 CES in Las Vegas with “a renewed focus on how technology is solving major problems” (see 2004210054).