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The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has changed in just the past month with a variant, vaccine and an increase in cases.

New Year’s Eve revelers who were at crowded places Thursday night should assume they were exposed to the coronavirus, a Nevada health official said. These places include the Las Vegas Strip.

Although the fireworks show was canceled on the Las Vegas Strip, thousands of people gathered in this tourist area to say goodbye to an unusual 2020 and welcome a 2021 that everyone hopes is better. However, there are those who consider that this way of welcoming the New Year was somewhat irresponsible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 upended just about everything in 2020. KUNR’s Lucia Starbuck talks to Brian Labus, an epidemiologist with Nevada’s COVID-19 medical advisory team, to learn more about the past 10 months in Nevada and what is expected for the start of the new year.

The iconic New Year’s Eve ball dropped at midnight in an eerily empty Times Square and was livestreamed into homes across the nation. The usually packed New York City block was mostly barren because tourists and locals were encouraged to celebrate safely at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nevada on Monday logged fewer than 1,000 coronavirus cases over a single day for the first time in nearly two months, but the head of the state’s COVID-19 response said the holidays may be clouding the numbers.

Clark County’s homeless communities have largely been spared by the coronavirus. Few have died, and officials say the positivity rate is on par with the general public’s.