Yosemite employee has coronavirus. The national park hasn’t told the public
A Yosemite National Park resident has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email from National Park Service leaders to some employees last week.
It’s the first known case of someone testing positive for coronavirus at the popular California destination that had more than 4.5 million visitors last year.
Yosemite officials haven’t publicly announced a coronavirus case in the park.
In response to a question from The Bee about whether any Yosemite employees have tested positive for COVID-19, Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman said, “There are HIPAA laws and privacy laws that we need to follow. As more cases come in, we are working on refining communications the best we can.”
Earlier this month, Yosemite officials told community members during a virtual meeting that no park employees had tested positive for coronavirus.
The Yosemite employee who shared the email, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he doesn’t want to jeapordize his career, was also on a conference call where park leaders reportedly said the resident works in Yosemite and was in close contact with visitors and colleagues before falling ill.
Last week, Mariposa County Department of Public Health said sewage tests showed dozens of people with coronavirus in Yosemite, but declined to answer a question about whether anyone in the park had actually tested positive for the contagious virus, citing privacy concerns. County officials referred the question to the park; Yosemite officials referred it to the county.
The email to staff from Yosemite’s leadership team about the positive coronavirus case is dated July 17. It states park leaders learned that week of a Yosemite resident testing positive for COVID-19.
“The individual followed all isolation and reporting protocols appropriately,” the email reads. “After a careful investigation the tracing team was not able to determine how the person became infected. Additionally the tracing team does not believe there is any community spread within the park at this time. We are working closely with the Mariposa County Health Officer and the US Public Health Service to monitor, plan and respond accordingly.”
The employee who shared the email said they were also on a conference call the previous day, July 16, where park officials said it was “most likely that the employee got COVID from a visitor since she has not left the park in months, and that none of her colleagues were showing symptoms.”
It wasn’t stated whether the infected employee worked for the Park Service or Yosemite Hospitality – the park’s concessionaire, a subsidiary of Aramark.
The employee who shared the park’s emails is unhappy with how things are being handled: “The park is barely giving this information to us who work in it, and many in the park are frustrated with its leadership, lack of communicators, poor planning, unacceptable public messaging, etc.”
Coronavirus is surging across California, which now has the most COVID-19 cases in the nation. The central San Joaquin Valley, just down the mountain from Yosemite, has reported an average of more than 600 new coronavirus cases each day for the past two weeks.
Yosemite reopened June 11
Yosemite has seen larger-than-expected day-use visitation since reopening June 11 with restrictions and some closures. A new day-use reservation system was put in place, aimed at cutting park visitation in half.
Park officials told the public that they can’t require Yosemite visitors wear masks, but the expectation is that visitors have them in the national park, and that most do because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask order for California.
“I do not feel safe a lot of the time at work,” the anonymous employee said, “due to poor social distancing practices and mask adherence from colleagues, supervisors and even some upper level management. Also, since masks are not mandated on federal land, any employee who has contacts with the public is at high risk of getting COVID. …
“Also, with all the guests that have entered the park it is impossible that NPS and Aramark employees, as well as other visitors have not come into contact with positive cases. The sewage testing tells us that.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Yosemite employee has coronavirus. The national park hasn’t told the public."
