Not all of Elon Musk’s projects have been thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic. While the billionaire clashed this week with local officials over restarting production at a Tesla Inc. factory in California, his tunnel-drilling company hit a new milestone in Nevada.

Some businesses in Las Vegas will reopen Saturday after nearly two months into the coronavirus lockdown. But hospitality workers still grapple with uncertain future.

More than seven weeks after Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak's stay-at-home orders were put in place to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus, the bustling heart of Las Vegas remains one of the bleakest faces of the nation's pandemic-driven crisis.

The winking airport slot machines that tell visitors they have arrived in Nevada’s Sin City are turned off and wrapped in police tape; the famed Las Vegas Strip is so empty a group of bicyclists zooms down the middle on a Friday night.

A significant change at the top of Nevada's employment department was announced Tuesday with the director stepping down.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has praised Nevadans for adhering to COVID-19 shutdown directives, but if control measures are reduced too soon, the disease will likely spread beyond control, said Brian Labus, an epidemiology expert at the UNLV School of Public Health.

A few neon lights at the casinos are still flashing, “open 24 hours”, stands above a closed burger bar. A homeless person sets up in a restaurant entrance for the night. On a pedestrian bridge over the Strip, the legendary entertainment mile in Las Vegas, Cici Ballard - pink hair, tattooed forearms - stands with friends and points to the deserted sidewalks below them, the closed bars, the silhouettes of the hotel towers. "It's kind of scary," she says, pulling her cigarette deeply.

Joseph Guerrero is done with the Las Vegas hospitality industry.