The recent appearance of coronavirus in Washoe County hasn’t yet impacted events, organizers say, and local public health officials have not taken steps to curtail public gatherings due to the virus’ growing outbreak in the U.S.

“Right now, in Washoe County, we have a very low potential for someone to be exposed to COVID-19 here in the community,” said Kevin Dick, Washoe County health officer. “So, we’re not taking any steps to make recommendations about public gatherings (like) concerts and things like that.”

Other public events around the nation — including multi-day music festival SXSW and the release of the new James Bond film — have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19’s spread through the U.S.

Locally, events appear to be going off without issue — albeit with more cleaning and requests to stay home if you’re sick.

People encouraged to go out, but wash hands

Ed Adkins, who organizes many of the themed bar crawls in Reno, said coronavirus is definitely something to keep an eye on, but this weekend's Leprechaun Crawl is still on.

"All I can do is make sure we can keep in contact with local authorities," said Adkins. He's also been communicating with all of the participating bars to make sure the venues are educated about current guidelines.

Venues such as the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts and Reno Little Theater issued notices to ticketholders to stay home if they had respiratory or flu-like symptoms.

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“We have significantly increased the frequency of cleaning and disinfecting in all public and backstage areas beyond the standard daily schedule and we invite patrons to make use of soap and paper towels available in all restrooms as hand-washing is the most recommended defense against the spread of germs,” said Reno Little Theater Executive Director Melissa Taylor in an email to patrons.

Reno City Councilwoman Neoma Jardon on Sunday urged people on her Instagram to still patronize restaurants and go to concerts.

"Just wash your hands.....pretty simple!" the post said.

An all-ages arts and music venue, the Holland Project, has offered to reimburse ticketholders who feel unwell before a performance.

The Holland Project additionally asked patrons to recognize that attending a concert while feeling unwell could put others at risk.

“Be mindful about how dangerous you can be to someone else,” a statement from the venue to members said.

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The event space also issued a cheeky suggestion to wash hands to more catchy songs than “Happy Birthday.” Examples included “End of the World” by REM, “Jolene” by Dolly Parton and “Raspberry Beret” by Prince.

Reno not following national trend yet

As a number of festivals and major events have been cancelled around the country, Reno-area festivals say that they are following coronavirus developments but will not be rushing to make any premature decisions.

Artown, the July arts festival, is not making any changes to its bookings or month-long schedule currently, according to spokesman Oliver X.

One of its bookings did, however, cancel due to international travel restrictions. The popular Dragon Lights installation out of China had to cancel due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions imposed by Chinese authorities.

None of the festival’s other featured performers or installations are based out of China or Italy, two of the countries that have been heavily impacted by coronavirus, according to Oliver X.

“We are playing it by ear. We are concerned about public health and we are following the best practices and edicts released by the CDC,” he said. “We can’t predict what’s going to happen between now and July.”

Randy Burke, who manages the spring Street Vibrations event in June, said that he too was following developments but was optimistic.

“I’ve got to be cautious, but I just don’t feel the urgency that’s reflected in the news,” Burke said.

Street Vibrations is one of the region’s largest motorcycle rallies, drawing 7,500 to 10,000 attendees in June, and as many as 50,000 in autumn.

Earlier this week, Burke returned from a Florida conference to book vendors and enlist sponsors for Street Vibrations and not one person mentioned the virus. It actually was a bit odd, he said.

“I don’t mean to sound flippant, but it’s like 200,000 people didn’t get the memo,” said Burke, who did notice there was hand sanitizer everywhere. “I’m always concerned about the safety of our public.”

Still, Burke expects that the virus will be better contained by the June event.

“I think we’re going to be just fine,” said Burke.

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Sam Gross is a breaking news reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal who covers wildfires, emergencies and more. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com.