After spending over a year in various forms of lock-down, there is now hope as Las Vegas returns to normal. However, as the tourists begin to make their way back to Nevada, there are some things to keep in mind.

First, the fantastic room rates that resorts have been offering during the pandemic will soon disappear as the masses flock to Sin City. Still, the rates will simply return to be closer to what they were before the world shut down. You can probably count on airfare heading up as well. But hey, at least we’ll be able to travel, right?

The real danger as we move through recovery is yet another wave of Coronavirus. That would be especially bad should the virus mutate into yet another strain. And with increasing capacity limits at Vegas casinos, shows, and restaurants a new wave of infections could be out of control before we know it’s underway.

“While we are thankful that the destination is bouncing back well, we need to be mindful that one slip in the numbers could reverse the trend as we saw last November when the governor imposed the cut in capacity,” said Brendan Bussmann of Global Market Advisors.

Clark County officials are hopeful that between 60 percent and 70 percent of its residents will get their vaccinations by the end of May. What if they don’t? What happens if the COVID-19 variants spread and the public has doubts that any vaccination would be effective? Worse, what if vaccinations aren’t effective against newly discovered variants?

You can read more about the questions and challenges as Las Vegas returns to ‘normal’ operations at the Review-Journal.