LAS VEGAS (KLA) — The latest figures from Nevada show the state has more than 1,900 cases of new coronavirus (COVID-19). That’s up by more than 100 cases in the last 24 hours.
There have been a total of 46 deaths, 41 of them alone were in southern Nevada.
As COVID-19 lingers, the unemployment filings continue to climb. The surge in claims has inundated the state’s unemployment office.
On Monday, the Las Vegas Chamber and Unemployment office held a webinar about what’s being done to improve the system. The director of the Department of Unemployment, Training, and Rehabilitation says they know the system is having issues. Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner says they are working around the clock to improve the system.
To give some perspective on just how busy the agency is — in the past two weeks alone there have been more than 164,000 initial unemployment claims. During the full year of 2019, there were only 119,000 claims.
DETR has already expanded its staff by three times, they extended call hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and will soon start half days on Saturdays.
“We greatly empathize and apologize for the volume and are hoping in part of increasing the hours, staffing, technology support, the web forms, and other vehicles under process, that this issue will be mitigated,” said Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner.
During Monday’s webinar, there was a lot of discussion about the CARES Act that will expand unemployment. That will expand who can file, extending the option to independent contractors.
It will also increase weekly pay by $600 dollars.
The director says they are working on these additions, and they will soon let more people know when they can file.
As far as the best thing to do when filing, the director says the best option is to file online during non-peak hours, such as the middle of the night.
