LAS VEGAS — Nestor Gutierrez is a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But not the way you might think.

The 53-year-old buffet cook spent 16 years at Texas Station. Then came March 2020. COVID-19 collapsed Nevada tourism, and the resort closed.

Gutierrez lost his job...His unemployment payment supports a household that includes his wife, two children and 92-year-old father.

He waits for a callback, but Texas Station has not announced plans to open. It’s not the closure that concerns Gutierrez and frontline hospitality workers like him...