LAS VEGAS (NewsNation Now) — Nevada health officials are giving oversight of coronavirus prevention measures back to counties as customer capacity increased to 50% at casinos, businesses and restaurants this week.

The state COVID-19 Response Task Force began meeting with groups of county managers, emergency, public health and elected officials throughout the week preparing to hand over pandemic authority by May 1.

Workers in the key Las Vegas restaurant, hospitality and casino sectors were eligible for vaccinations last week. State COVID-19 response officials issued an order on March 11 adding “frontline commerce and service industries” in Clark County to the eligibility list that started in December with doctors and first responders and has added teachers, government and community support employees.

Nevada is making all residents ages 16 and older eligible for the coronavirus vaccine starting April 5 as part of its efforts to inoculate the population as quickly as possible.

Task force chief Caleb Cage said the Nevada Hospital Association was reporting some of the lowest numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations the state has seen in almost a year.

The 318 people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 statewide compared with the more than 1,800 coronavirus patients that hospitals reported handling at their peak in December.

The first known death from COVID-19 in Nevada was reported a year ago, on March 15, 2020, and Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered a sweeping statewide shutdown two days later of casinos, retail stores and nonessential businesses.

Meanwhile, state health officials reported 184 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the number to nearly 300,000 cases.

More than 2.8 million COVID-19 tests have been administered statewide, and test positivity — a measure of the number of people tested who receive a positive diagnosis — dropped to 5.7%. That number peaked at 21.6% on Jan. 13. The World Health Organization target is 5%.

About 641,000 people have gotten at least one inoculation shot in Nevada, including almost 360,000 who have been completely vaccinated, officials said.

Cage told reporters that Nevada hopes to meet President Joe Biden’s goal of offering a vaccination to every adult who wants one by May 1, but said that does not necessarily mean everyone will be vaccinated by the end of May.

“The pace at which we’re able to get through individuals is very much dependent upon the allocation or supply that we get,” said Candice McDaniel, the state official heading the vaccination drive.

Grand Canyon National Park officials tentatively plan to reopen the park’s eastern entrance in late May, but there’s sentiment in a small northern Arizona city that depends on tourism that sooner would be better.

“Our sales tax for this year is down nearly 30% from last year,” Page city manager Darren Coldwell told the Arizona Daily Sun. “Our Horseshoe Bend visitation is down 80%. So when we say that our numbers dropped off the face of the earth, they really did.”

The Grand Canyon’s eastern entrance and the highway leading to it, State Route 64, were closed last spring as a courtesy to the neighboring Navajo Nation, which was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

“People come out of Vegas, and they come in one way through I-40, and do the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, continue on up to do Page, Lake Powell, or they go on over to Monument Valley, come back in the other way,” Diak said. “Both Utah and Arizona have marketed that for years, and then finally it has taken hold over the last three years. Now we’re going to lose all that.”

For now, many campsites at the Page-Lake Powell Campground sit empty.

“Starting from spring break in March, for the last five or six years, our campground has been sold out every single weekend all the way into Thanksgiving,” said Ron Colby, who manages the campground and a nearby bait shop.

Colby said business has been down 78% compared to 2019. There were a few weeks last summer that approached normal occupancy levels, but that eventually dropped off.

Diak and Coldwell, the city manager, have been lobbying park officials to reopen the highway.

Park spokesperson Joelle Baird said Superintendent Edward Keable is considering reopening the eastern entrance on May 21, before Memorial Day weekend.

Baird said the final decision will be made only after careful consideration and consultations with tribal leaders.