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Valley County Authorities: Please Don't Visit Us Right Now
March 21, 1:45 p.m.
Valley County is telling visitors to not travel to the region. There are no mandatory closures in the county, but many businesses have closed. Food service options and recreational opportunities are limited.
In an open letter to the Valley County community, Dr. Gregory Irvine, MD, chief of staff at St. Luke's McCall Medical Center, wrote in a press release that prospective visitors should stay home because of limited hospital resources in the area. "People are arriving in rural towns, in large numbers, from all over the state and country to take 'virus vacations,'' Irvine says. "I can think of little that is more inappropriate and dangerous than this mindset."On Monday, the Valley Commissioners enacted an Emergency Declaration to try to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Friday, the mayor of McCall, the county’s biggest city, asked visitors to stay away from the tourist destination. There are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Valley County.