Positive coronavirus lab tests in Truckee, CA reached 46 yesterday making the area a ‘hotspot’ and NINE TIMES hotter per capita than the rest of California, reports Tahoe Forest Hospital CEO Harry Weis.

The crisis has resulted in officials asking owners of second homes in the Truckee area to follow stay-at-home orders in their primary residences, away from Truckee. The move mirrors a request by Gunnison County in Colorado, home to Crested Butte ski area, who will fine non-residents $5,000 and jail them if they remain there without being granted exemption.

“If you are now residing in Nevada County, and have another home in an area with a higher-capacity healthcare system, our public health officer advises that you may be better off returning to that home to shelter in place,” Nevada County Supervisor Richard Anderson said.

There are 14,000 homes in the Truckee area, half of which are owned by part-time residents or second-home owners. Weis claims the health care system may become overwhelmed and could easily be overrun if the number of cases continues to rise. Truckee’s Tahoe National Forest hospital only has 25 beds – 44 at surge capacity. To that end, the priority of town officials is full-time residents and asking second-home owners to stay at their primary residence would have a huge impact:

“We really want to protect the health and safety of our community here,” Weis said.

The following was recorded on April 6, 2020, as an immediate message from the Tahoe Forest Health System (TFH), Town of Truckee, and the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District regarding COVID-19. Here is what you need to know:

As of April 8th, we have an incremental growth rate for COVID-19 that could alter the inpatient census at TFH each day to as high as 30. Some modeling estimates show more.

Although very speculative, some models suggest that the Tahoe/Truckee region might peak around late April. This means that the stay-at-home order and social distancing are more important than ever. The next two and a half weeks are critical.

We want to do all that we can to suppress and slow the growth. We know that we can do that by continuing to shelter in place, practicing social distancing, washing hands, and wearing masks when outside. If we continue to practice these measures, it will have an impact and a better outcome for our community.

COVID-19 is larger than our region, and the impacts to TFH are larger than just Truckee. We must work together and focus on our own actions, and how we can lead and support our own family and friend groups to do the same.

Tahoe Truckee students will be participating in distance learning through the end of the school year, for now. Teachers will continue to refine this model and are available to support students and parents. We are asking parents to further support their students by keeping them focused on their learning at home, and to keep students from congregating with others at parks, playgrounds, and other recreation facilities until this crisis is over.

California has recorded 19,063 confirmed coronavirus cases, resulting in 507 deaths.

There are many ski areas in the Truckee area. Ski areas have been linked to coronavirus hotspots due to the number of visitors from across the globe, notably Sun Valley, Idaho and Ischgl in Tirol, Austria.