Yellowstone National Park and gateway communities in Montana and Wyoming are working to track the spread of COVID-19 as tourists start trickling in.
Yellowstone tested 43 employees last week and all came back negative. About 100 additional employees have been tested and are awaiting results.
Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said surveillance was an important criteria for opening the park.
"Our ability to not only have testing capacity for people that have symptoms, but [it's] equally important for us to have the ability to test people that don't have symptoms, but that are interfacing with the public on a regular basis," said Sholly.
Sholly said about 15 percent of the park's 1000 employees are being tested at a time. Sholly says testing will also be important as new employees start to come in.
"With the support of these counties that as we have new seasonal employees that arrive to work here, we feel like we can give them tests right away. And that's, that's gonna be really beneficial," said Sholly.
Workers in gateway communities like Jackson and Cody are also being regularly tested.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
