Truckee now COVID-19 'hotspot,' visitors and part-time homeowners urged to stay away

[TexasTowelie]

In early March, a series of storms finally broke up a dismally dry winter in the Sierra Nevada, prompting skiers, snowboarders and part-time residents to flock to Truckee to play in the snow.

People in the town's medical community also took notice, but for a darker reason.

"We just started to see our COVID-19 positive lab tests start to take off," said Tahoe Forest Health CEO Harry Weis.

As the positive tests ticked upward, Weis noticed the local infection rate was more than nine times the California statewide rate and more than three times the rate of the U.S. as a whole.

He thought of how the deadly virus spread in other tourist-oriented small towns such as Sun Valley, Idaho, where the 25-bed hospital became overwhelmed as Blaine County emerged as the place with the highest rate of infection in the U.S.

Read more: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/04/09/truckee-reno-covid-19-coronavirus-hospital-capacity-limited/5127493002/
(Reno Gazette Journal)

[FirstLight]

1. shit....

Im in south Tahoe and that's not good. Though the resorts actually closed up that same weekend and the casinos too... BUT there's still way too many people out and about up here and they are certainly NOT locals...

Supposedly there's a fine for hotels or vrbos who rent our rooms...but second homeowners are still doing it...and though they say they are enforcing it, no actual tickets are happening.

It sucks too for those of us on limited income, cus i dont have the means to "stock up" for weeks at a time...

[2naSalit]

2. Any place that out of towners

think is some kind of "nobody else lives here" place... it's the same in Montana, the "transient population" double the resident population and will fill up our hospitals when they get sick, a week before the locals do.

[Mr.Bill]

3. I live in a somewhat geographically remote county

about 100 miles north of San Francisco. Weeks ago we shut down all motels and banned short term rentals. Exceptions are made for health care workers, construction workers, etc. So far we have only four confirmed cases confined to two families in the same area. They contracted the virus when commuting to jobs outside the county. No one hospitalized yet. There are 60,000 people here.

We have a large lake that attracts tourism, especially in the spring and summer. The lake is closed to all boating activity and sport fishing is banned. Basically, we have removed the activities and lodging that attracts tourism. Four Indian casinos are closed. So far it seems to be working.