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Regardless, to ensure the safety of tourists, Taylor Creek Visitor Center and Kiva Beach will be closed until Saturday, August 7, in order to perform “plague treatment.” Within these areas, the U.S.
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Luckily, a spokesperson for El Dorado County reported that “the mammals hadn’t had any contact with humans,” as stated by Travel Leisure. An earlier version referred to animal control workers rather than vector control workers.Chipmunks located in South Lake Tahoe, California have tested positive for the bubonic plague recently, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune. This article was amended on 4 August 2021. “Just tell them to stay home and wear a mask.” “Chipmunks and squirrels have had the plague for decades around the lake, nothing new,” said another Facebook user, responding to the latest story in the Tahoe Daily Tribune. Others mused that it seems ironic that, at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic seems destined to run on for two years, the bubonic plague can now be wiped out in four days. Just another week in California,” said one poster, responding to the forest service’s announcement on Facebook. “Drought, plague, fires, and earthquakes. Local readers of the announcement seemed to take the closures in stride. Symptoms to watch for include sudden fever and chills, headache and muscle aches. Herron said if caught in time, plague in humans was now actually very treatable. Last year an avid walker from the South Lake Tahoe region tested positive, becoming the first case in five years, according to a story in the Tahoe Daily Tribune. Then there will be another round of trapping and testing and hopefully the visitor sites, which can draw several thousand visitors a day during the busy summer season, can be opened by this weekend, she said.īut plague in humans has been extremely rare in the area. “What happens next is that the El Dorado county vector control will be dusting the burrows with a powder,” she said. Once plague is detected, vector control workers will give the area the forest equivalent of a flea bath.
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Regional authorities conduct regular tests, in which they trap the rodents, anesthetize them, comb them for fleas and then test the fleas for plague, she said. Herron said the real danger of getting bubonic plague comes from the fleas that carry the disease. Herron said this week’s abatement efforts would not target the chipmunk populations themselves – but instead would try to wipe out their fleas. The federal agency’s announcement on Facebook said “vector control” workers would complete “eradication treatments” in the area on Thursday in hopes of reopening the sites and the surrounding hiking areas by Friday. But visitors should also stay away from chipmunks and squirrels and report any that are acting strange or lethargic to rangers. She said keeping pets at home, or at least on leash and away from rodent burrows, was one important strategy. “It’s something that visitors need to take precautions about, but it’s not something that they need to worry about.” “Bubonic plague is naturally occurring in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and this region,” said Lisa Herron, a public affairs specialist for the agency’s Lake Tahoe basin management unit, which runs the closed facilities.