Wynn Resorts said it has seen 548 positive cases of COVID-19 from its Las Vegas workforce out of 15,051 tests – a positivity test rate of 3.6%, well below the U.S. national average – the casino operator said Thursday.
Of those results, 51 positive tests happened before the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore reopened on June 4, with 497 positive tests coming were after that date, for a 3.3% positivity rate post-opening. According to The Associated Press, three of the workers died from the virus.
A Wynn Resorts spokeswoman told AP the company has offered support and financial aid to families of the employees who died.
In a statement, Wynn Resorts said it made a commitment to public transparency of its COVID-19 pandemic health and safety efforts. The company, which is conducting the tests in partnership with Las Vegas’ University Medical Center, requires each employee to pass a COVID-19 test before they return to work or upon hiring.
Wynn Las Vegas has hosted more than 500,000 guests since re-opening. Guests who self-identify with potential exposure or display symptoms are offered in-room testing and six guests have tested positive.
The company first revealed the results of its testing program in August during its second-quarter earnings announcement.
“Our goal, by implementing our Surveillance Testing Program and establishing a robust in-house contact tracing effort, is to make Wynn Las Vegas the safest place our guests and employees can go outside of their own homes,” Wynn CEO Matt Maddox said in a statement.
During the earnings call, Maddox said he was proud of the company’s coronavirus testing program.
“Each week, I sit with and talk to the head of global health security and pandemic research and her team from Georgetown University, going through our protocols and everything we’re doing,” Maddox said.
The company said in its most recent round of testing last Friday, only one out of 285 employees tested positive.
Wynn has 10 employees dedicated full-time to contact tracing for positive employee cases who interview each infected employee and works with security to review all available surveillance coverage.
Wynn’s contact tracing results reveal that 98% of the employees testing positive contracted the virus outside of work.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
