Tuolumne County  — its economy highly dependent on tourism — is pleading with people to not visit them while  the stay-at-home orders are in place to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve.

Last weekend more than 200 cars driven by out-of-county visitors filled the Donner Ski Resort parking lot so they could play in the snow. The ski resort is closed in compliance with the state order that all non-essential business shutdown.

Tuolumne County officials are concerned that the influx of visitors could spike COVID-19 cases and overwhelm their fairly limited health care system.

The curtailment of all non-essential travel outside of San Joaquin County has been listed as an emergency order for more than a week to avoid spreading the coronavirus or importing it.

The Centers for Disease Control has made it clear healthy individuals can carry the coronavirus and never get sick while passing it on to others who could become severely ill and even die and/or pass it on to others who are considered vulnerable.

 Like many primarily rural counties, Tuolumne has been able to escape much of the wrath of the pandemic. As of Thursday Tuolumne had only one confirmed case of COVID-19 with no deaths. They also had one known non-resident case. They have tested 304 individuals of whom 297 were negative, six test results pending, and the one positive case.

San Joaquin County recorded its 14th death Thursday. There were eight more confirmed cases to push the overall number to 245.

There were 40 more deaths and 1,149 more cases Thursday to bring the California total so far to 547 deaths and 20,212 confirmed cases.

Nationally, as of Thursday there were 14,696 deaths and 427,460 confirmed cases.

In a statement issued this week by Tuolumne County officials they are asking “that all non-essential travel to our County stop until the Governor’s Stay at Home order is lifted. We value the support received from visitors and enjoy being your gateway to the Yosemite National Park, National Forests, and waterways. Amenities remain closed until further notice. We are trying to protect our vulnerable populations, mitigate impact to our healthcare system and ultimately help contain the spread of COVID-19. Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to seeing you again, soon.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com