The family of a Caesars Palace employee who died after contracting coronavirus blames the Las Vegas casino for forcing him to return to work and failing to protect himself and others at work from the virus.
Adolfo Fernández, 51, died Wednesday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, just two days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
His family told KVVU-TV that Fernández worked as a public services porter and that he was a member of Local 226 of the Culinary Union.
Fernández’s daughter Irma works as a housekeeper at the Venetian, another casino located on the famous Las Vegas Strip.
She expressed anger Friday over what she says Caesars did not protect her father.
Adolfo Fernández, 51, died Wednesday at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, just two days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
His family said he worked as a utility janitor at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday and died in a hospital just two days later.
“I am going to fight for justice because he constantly told me that they are not using the correct safety precautions at work,” said Fernández.
“They are not protecting their employees.”
Caesars Entertainment, the parent company that runs Caesars Palace and other Las Vegas resorts, confirmed this weekend that one of its employees died of COVID-19.
“Unfortunately, we can confirm that one of our colleagues died after testing positive for COVID-19,” the statement said.
‘We are heartbroken at this development and are expressing our deepest condolences to your family and friends.
‘While we were unable to determine how the employee contracted the virus, once the employee informed us of the positive tests, the company implemented its protocols to determine who had been very close to this person at the direction of the Southern Health District. from Nevada.
‘As a result, it was identified that a small number of employees belonged to this category and now have paid vacations while self-isolating.
‘As far as we know, none of these individuals has tested positive at this time.
“They won’t work again until they get a negative result.”
Irma Fernández said that her father suffered a serious case of work stress.
After returning to work, he began to complain of body aches. Eventually, he contracted coronavirus, which then attacked vital organs.
“Little by little it was fading,” he said. “His death was very painful.”
Caesars Palace implemented a police Wednesday that requires guests of its casinos and resorts to wear masks. Above is a face mask worn by the Julius Caesar statue at the entrance to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Guests arrived at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip after the property opened for the first time in 78 days on June 4. They found a new casino with new health and safety measures.
Irma said her father suffered two cardiac arrests after testing positive. She said her father was worried about going back to work, but she felt that she had few options since her priority was to support her family.
“He was exposed during his daily routine at work at Caesars Palace,” said Fernández.
‘He did it to support his family. He was a great father and a great working man.
‘A human with a big heart. And my dad fought hard. ‘
After her father became ill with COVID-19, other family members were also exposed.
According to Irma Fernández, her mother tested positive for COVID-19, as did her cousin.
She said she has transferred her children to a hotel as a precautionary measure.
“It came to my house and infected my family members,” said Fernández.
“I don’t want to lose my two parents.”
The Culinary Workers Union, a strong 60,000-member organization representing employees in casinos, hotels and restaurants in Las Vegas and Reno, said it plans to file a lawsuit Monday against the “top casino companies on the Las Vegas Strip.”
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the union will argue in its court filing that local casinos have failed to adequately protect workers from the coronavirus.
The union told the Review-Journal that “the rules and procedures in place to respond to workers who hire COVID-19 have been totally and dangerously inadequate.”
Union officials plan to hold a virtual press conference on Monday, where they are expected to tell the public which companies they plan to sue.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak (seen above in Carson City on Wednesday) bowed to public pressure and issued a mandate last week requiring state residents to wear a face mask when in public. The order went into effect on Friday
Irma Fernández said she plans to speak at the event.
The same day his father died, Caesars announced that he would require all guests in his casinos and other resorts across the United States to wear face masks to help counter the spread of the coronavirus.
The company said that anyone who refuses to wear a mask should leave the property.
The company had previously ordered guests at its Las Vegas casinos to wear masks only in board games that had no barriers, according to rules set by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Crowds of people flocked to Las Vegas casinos on June 4 after 78 days of closing.
The public was allowed to return to the places, which were transformed by new health and safety measures to combat the spread of the virus.
All staff were wearing masks or masks when they first returned since March 18, and players were stationed further apart at tables as part of the new protocol.
Many casinos have also built glass partitions between slot machines and players at the tables to keep them separate, and in certain hotels, guests had to check the temperature before entering.
Nevada reported a record daily increase in additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.
But health officials later said the bulge was largely due to laboratory data entry errors that delayed publication of hundreds of cases from the previous two days.
The state Department of Health and Human Services reported 1,099 additional confirmed cases, mostly from the Las Vegas subway.
The number of additional cases reported on Saturday was more than double the previous record of 507 reported on Thursday.
But the Southern Nevada Health Agency said the reported daily increase included more than 600 cases that should have been reported earlier in the week but were not.
The 1,099 additional cases reported Saturday raised the state total to 16,339 with 500 deaths, including two just reported on Saturday.
Clark County accounted for 88 percent of the additional confirmed cases reported Saturday. The county represents 81 percent of the total total cases reported by the state.
The number of infections is believed to be much higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest that people can become infected with the virus without feeling sick.
Nevada Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak finally bowed to pressure last week and issued a mandatory order for state residents to wear masks in public.
“This is a state that prides itself on the spirit of individualism,” Sisolak said at a press conference on Wednesday. The order went into effect on Friday.
‘It is part of what makes us great.
“Therefore, I ask all of us to take our independent spirit and make it our individual responsibility to keep the lights on for businesses across our state.”
The governor added: ‘As I said last week, we did not publish COVID. We are still in the middle of the first phase, the first wave of COVID.
‘So please, I can’t stress this enough, put your face on every time you leave your house, when you go to a restaurant, and stop at the pharmacy, when you enter a casino.
‘Put your face covered.’
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