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
Yup, get outside. Indoor facilities at nps sites should be thoroughly cleaned and maintained aggressively, but keep'em open and get outside.
Close the visitor centers but keep parking lots & trails open. Can't catch coronavirus hiking by yourself.
Of course they should remain open. We are supposed to maintain social distancing - staying 6 feet away from others. You can do that in the wilderness! People should be out in nature rather than shivering from fear, hiding in their apartment closets.
The people saying we should close the parks to save the NPS workers are delusional. This is going to spread throughout the entire country no matter what we do. The point of shutting down large groups of people is to space out the infections so that everybody doesn't get sick all at once and overwhelm hospitals. Nobody is thinking that we can just all stay inside for some amount of time and then magically the virus will one day be gone. It makes no sense to close down national parks. They aren't even shutting down New York subways, but you want to shut down an NPS visitor center with 10 people in it? Let's get it together people.
But....not all National Parks are outdoors. I work in a park with cultural resources. People, staff and visitors, are shoulder to shoulder in confined spaces. No changes to historic building tours?
Thank you Reg, for the only sensible comment I've seen on this site. Panic and over-kill all over this country - so very unamerican!! Taking proper precautions, old and people with auto-immune issues stay away from crowds. But closing sports events like spring training, closing Disney? At least our enemies will know how to bring this country to its knees!! Get a grip everyone, we had more deaths and more seriously ill during swine virus 10 years ago and we still had toilet paper in the stores!
Oh you people. Remember the movie Surrogates, that's where you're heading.
They should stay open, encourage people to be outside not inside to keep entertained. Stay home or go to an open area, close all national park eateries.