A Grand Canyon resident and her daughters made this map reflecting license plates on vehicles spotted in the national park last weekend/Kate Densmore

Editor's note: This updates with decision to close Grand Canyon National Park.

After days of pressure from those who live at Grand Canyon National Park and from local communities, and with at least one confirmed diagnosis of a worker contracting COVID-19, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt agreed Wednesday to close the park immediately.

The National Park Service received a letter today from the Health and Human Services Director and Chief Health Officer for Coconino County recommending the full closure of Grand Canyon National Park. Upon receiving this request from the local health department, acting Superintendent Mary Risser, with the support of the NPS Deputy Director, Operations, David Vela and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, made the decision to immediately close the park until further notice. -- National Park Service release Wednesday afternoon.

"As soon as we received the letter from the Health and Human Services Director and Chief Health Officer for Coconino County recommending the closure of Grand Canyon National Park, we closed the park," said Bernhardt, who was the focus of a social media campaign to get the park closed to protect the health of its residents and employees.

Coconino County health department officials had tried last week to get the park to close down, writing on Friday to Grand Canyon acting Superintendent Mary Risser with a plea to shutter the park to the visiting public.

"We are writing with extreme concern for any decision to keep the Grand Canyon National Park open in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic," read the letter signed by the chairwoman of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors and the director of the county's health and human services department. "Our County Health and Human Services Department is advising all residents and tourists to practice social distancing and implement appropriate public health measures to help contain and mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.

"We encourage our federal partners to model that same behavior for the public health of the county."

That did not do the trick, as the park, despite support from David Vela, the de facto Park Service director, remained open until Wednesday afternoon, when Bernhardt finally relented. The Interior secretary had also faced pressure from members of Congress and outside groups, including the Coalition To Protect America's National Parks.

"It is frightening that you continue to allow and encourage park visitation," Coalition Chair Phil Francis told Bernhardt in a letter Tuesday. "Your inaction and failure to support the recommendations of experienced (National Park Service) managers and their local communities is putting NPS employees and local gateway community members at serious risk to exposure to the virus potentially carried by travelers from outside the local area."

Local government entities had called for the Grand Canyon's closure; among them, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, the Navajo Nation, Tusayan Chamber of Commerce, and the Tusayan Fire Department.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, and nine other Democrats on Tuesday sent a letter to Bernhardt, saying he should let superintendents on the ground make the call as to whether to close their parks.

Grijalva and his colleagues stressed to Bernhardt that there are many areas within the National Park System that are struggling to meet CDC guidelines in terms of keeping park staff and visitors safe.

"As you know, impacts of the pandemic are not unique to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. In New Mexico, the All Pueblo Council of Governors has asked groups of visitors not to visit KashaKatuwe Tent Rocks National Monument because of the threat posed to the nearby Cochiti Pueblo," they wrote. "In Washington, D.C., streets and Metro stations near the National Mall and Tidal Basin had to be closed down to stem the crowds of people seeking to view the seasonal cherry blossoms.

For Grand Canyon residents, the risks of staying open to the public were challenging. Among those challenges was the fact that the K-12 school system in Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim has about 300 students. With those students out of school due to the coronavirus pandemic, their parents had to cope with their out-of-school children and hope they wouldn't become sick.

"We have a whole village here full of older and younger folk, healthy and immune-compromised folk. Help us take care of each other and close the park!," Jess Warren, who identified herself as a "Grand Canyon wife," wrote in a post on the U.S. Interior Department's Facebook page earlier this week.

South Rim resident Kate Densmore and her daughters counted vehicles with license plates from more than 20 states last weekend. They then made a map reflecting those states, and posted it on Facebook with a #closegrandcanyon hashtag.

Earlier Wednesday, Risser had notified park employees that the following areas were closed to park visitors:

• The Desert View developed area
• The Grand Canyon Village area
• North of the intersection of South Entrance Road and Desert View Drive
• West of the intersection of South Entrance Road and Center Road
• All other areas of the park outside of the Highway 64 corridor to include some scenic overlooks (as designated by signs)

Elsewhere, Zion National Park in Utah remained open, although there were media reports that the gateway town of Springdale would ask for the park's closure.

From the western Pacific and Utah to Florida and Virginia, more units and visitor services of the National Park System were closing Wednesday, including backcountry areas in Everglades National Park. 

Wednesday morning brought full closures to Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments in Utah, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway the following services and operations, originally scheduled to open between now and May 1, were postponed until further notice:

• Milepost 63.6 – James River Picnic Area
• Milepost 294 – Moses Cone Manor House and Craft Center
• Milepost 296.9 – Price Park Campground and Picnic Area
• Milepost 316.4 – Linville Falls Campground and Picnic Area
• Milepost 364.5 – Craggy Gardens Visitor Center
• Milepost 451.2 – Waterrock Knob Visitor Center
• All backcountry campsites, including sites at CCC Camp (Rock Castle Gorge, Milepost 167.1), Basin Cove (Bluffs North and South, Milepost 244.7), and John’s River Road (Milepost 296.9) are now closed.

At Everglades National Park, wilderness (backcountry) campsites with chickees and ground campsites were closed Wednesday morning until further notice. Portable toilets parkwide were closed, too, according to a park release. Beach campsites were open and permits were not required.​ Congaree National Park staff said their park would be closed Thursday.

At Ninety Six National Historic Site in South Carolina, the following closures were put in place: 

• No boating or fishing at Star Fort Pond
• Fishing Pier (closed)
• Boat ramp (closed)
• Parking lot at Star Fort Pond(closed)
• Restrooms (closed)
• Visitor Center (closed)
• Special Events and all programs canceled

In the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, American Memorial Park closed as well. The park honors the American and Marianas people who gave their lives during the Marianas Campaign of World War II.