Coronavirus image/CDC,Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAMS
National parks and their facilities remain open during the coronavirus epidemic in the United States while National Park Service officials await further guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agency staff said Thursday.
"To help guide the National Park Service operational response to the novel (new) coronavirus (COVID-19), the NPS Office of Public Health and the U.S. Public Health Service officers assigned to the NPS are closely monitoring the situation and keeping staff informed," Park Service acting chief spokesperson Stephanie Roulett told the Traveler in an email. "They are relying on the most updated data and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM), state and local public health authorities, and coordinating with the DOI Office of Emergency Management.
"The national parks are open and facilities are maintaining continuity of operations," she added. "The NPS is focused on ensuring employees, their families, volunteers, and visitors are safe by following the most current guidance from the CDC, OPM, OEM, and other federal, state, and local health authorities."
The Park Service has been working to keep the public up-to-date on the situation via its public health website.
Representatives for Xanterra Parks & Resorts and Delaware North, two of the largest concessionaires in the National Park System with operations in places such as Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sequoia, and Shenandoah national parks, did not immediately reply Thursday to emailed requests for how they were approaching the epidemic in their park lodges and restaurants.
Comments
I completely agree on this one, but we do have to think of the employees as they greet all the nasty people that don't wash their hands or cover their mouths
All this is about controlling the spread of a virus without a vaccine. Locking everyone up in their house is ridiculous. National Parks feel very low on the spectrum of risk for spreading the virus. Stay open.
Consider the safety of national park staff needed to keep parks open. I would love to go off on a camping vacation with my family while the school is closed but respect the health and safety of park rangers, camp ground hosts, and the thousands of other employess that care for our national parks and the people that love to visit. The trees and geysers will still be around after we get a handle on this novel cornavirus. Live well!
Everybody needs to stop panicking. Why close the parks? All people should make sure they are practicing proper personal hygiene, which they should be doing any way, and enjoy the outdoors. Relax, enjoy and stop buying so much toilet paper!
You do realize most National Parks are open aired vast tracts of land for people to explore?
Do you really have to make a political statement? Fear mongering on Covid-19 will likely turn out to be a big fraud created by certain people with an obvious agenda. If not, we should still stop scaring people and focus in practicing better immune health. Wash your hands!
Some of us live in our Rvs full time and rely on state and national parks! I usually don't come within 10 ft of another person so I'm safer than in town.
If you want to go to the park you should be able. If you don't want to go to the parks stay home. Make sure you wash your hands. If peolple would learn to cover there mouths and wash their hand and use soap and water. There would be no problem. So if you are afraid stay at home.