Yosemite National Park, California – With no confirmed cases of coronavirus, Yosemite National Park appeared to be a safe haven against the pandemic. But tests of the park’s raw sewage have confirmed the presence of the virus, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, and dozens of people are believed to have been infected.
No park employee or resident has tested positive at the park’s health clinic, and no visitors have reported that they have been ill since Yosemite began a gradual reopening on June 11 after being closed for nearly three months.
Working with the National Park Service, Mariposa County health officials began taking samples of untreated wastewater and sending it to a laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for analysis. The lab, Biobot Analytics, told the county this week that, based on the number of viruses they counted, it is possible that about 170 people may have been infected in the Yosemite Valley.
Eric Sergienko, the county health officer who oversees coronavirus testing in the Yosemite area, attributed the appearance of the coronavirus in Yosemite to the many visitors to the region. He said his presence will likely not lead to policy changes because the park is already following state and local restrictions.
Yosemite, which normally attracts more than 4 million visitors each year, is halving the number of vehicle passes to the park. Visitor centers remain closed, while camps, gift shops, and hotels limit services to allow for physical distance. After Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered state restrictions on stopping food indoors due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in California, the park’s additional facilities, such as restaurants, curtailed operations.
Sergienko said he believes the confirmed presence of the virus in Yosemite will make people more vigilant.
“We know that the problem is here. We know that the challenge is here. Now we have to take ourselves seriously to face it,” he said.
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