Steve Sisolak. | AP Photo/John Locher Nevada, Colorado join West Coast reopening alliance

OAKLAND — Colorado and Nevada have joined a coalition of Western states coordinating a gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions.

The governors of California, Washington and Oregon had already announced a regional pact aimed at restarting their economies as the pandemic's spread has slowed. The addition of two more states means the group will encompass some 60 million Americans, or about a fifth of the nation's population.


Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said on Twitter that "our states will only be effective when working together against" the coronavirus, citing the need to share information. And he noted that their economies are intertwined by tourism and commerce, necessitating collective action to prevent the virus from flaring anew.

"Millions of visitors from our fellow Western states travel to Nevada every year as a premier tourism destination, and this partnership will be vital to our immediate recovery and long term economic comeback," Sisolak said in a statement.

The growing alliance reflects the fact that governors, rather than the federal government, are making the critical decisions about when to reopen their states' slumbering economies. All five of the Western group's governors are Democrats, and all have said they will hew to science first.

A business group representing employers in Washington, California and Oregon wrote a letter those states' governors on Monday urging clear directives for industry and pledging "to work with you, collectively as a region and individually in each of our states, as we execute a plan for economic recovery."