Moab Hospital Medical Director Asks Tourists To Stay Away From National Parks

“Please. Do. More. Now.”  That's the message Moab Regional Hospital sent yesterday to Gov. Gary Herbert. In a letter, the hospital’s leadership asked Herbert to close all non-essential businesses in Moab for two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. They wrote that Moab could see up to 6,000 visitors next weekend, based on current hotel bookings. "Although the desert around Moab is vast, the town itself is small … cruise ship small … with similar isolation and limitations in resources," the letter states. The letter comes on the heels of the hospital’s chief medical officer urging people not to visit the area right now. “The best thing we could all do is stay at home,” Dr. Dylan Cole said. “I don’t think this is the time to encourage people to take cross-country road trips.”

And despite the statewide cancellation of events and the shutdown of public schools, people are also still visiting Moab—which does not yet have a confirmed case of the virus. A spokesperson for the National Park Service said around 1,900 vehicles visited Arches on Sunday. A graph on the Arches website shows that, on average, between 1,500 and 2,000 vehicles visited Arches each day in March 2016. Camping sites at Sand Flats Recreation Area were also full this weekend, according to Howard Trenholme, chair of the Moab Area Travel Council. He said the closure of ski resorts in Utah and Colorado have likely contributed to people visiting Moab. “People are pouring out of the cities and mountains to come to the desert, where it’s 60 degrees and sunny right now,” he said...Despite the steady stream of tourists, Trenholme said the economy is already taking a hit from coronavirus. He said hotels are seeing a lot of cancellations and rebookings and that many restaurants, including his own, are switching to take-out only. “I laid off two employees this morning,” he said. “And this is the time of year when I’m usually hiring.” Despite the negative economic impact coronavirus is having on tourism towns like Moab, Dr. Cole said that discouraging tourism is necessary to help slow the spread of the virus. “We are sending a strong message to stay home,” Cole said. “And [Moab] is full of tourists. It is really jaw-dropping to me.”...MORE

We already know that 6 people a week die in the National Park System, supposedly "America's Greatest Idea". Doubt if anyone will count the deaths caused by NPS tourists.