Dear Lodging Partners:
I wish I didn’t have to introduce myself to you with a letter about COVID-19, but here I am doing so! I’m Jennifer Callaway, the new Town Manager for the Town of Truckee. I am so happy to be part of this amazing community and look forward to meeting many of you in person at some point in the future.
I know this year has been an extremely challenging and stressful one with the pandemic lasting over nine months – we are all tired and ready to return back to normal. Unfortunately, we are experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases, something I think we all expected but hoped wouldn’t come. With this surge, on December 3, 2020 the Governor announced a new set of Regional Stay Home orders that are trigged by low availability of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed space within defined regions. Once in place, the Regional Stay Home orders will last at least three weeks.
Truckee is part of the Greater Sacramento region and based on the available ICU space, we expect the Regional Stay Home order to be in effect here sometime this week – as of today, the region is currently at 20.3% ICU capacity. This new Regional Stay Home order issued by the Governor has significant impacts to the lodging industry. I realize that this order, unfortunately occurring right during the holiday season, may be extremely difficult for you, your business, and your employees.
For hotels/motels/and short term rentals, this means avoiding renting rooms to any visitors who are here for the expressed reason of recreation/vacation, providing lodging only for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations. For details please visit https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/#regional-stay-home-order
We know that this is a difficult message to receive, and we certainly wish we didn’t have to deliver it, but we are asking you to comply with the State’s orders to help preserve the health of our community. While our health system is well equipped to serve us and visitors, COVID-19, certainly has the potential to compromise matters for those who protect us most if we don’t all do our part.
The economic disruption caused by COVID-19 is affecting most industries across the nation, state and region, and we continue to look forward to when the pandemic is under control so we can return to our normal lives. We do believe that this pandemic will end sooner if we actively participate in and adhere to the guidelines regarding strict social distancing, usage of face coverings and follow the Regional Stay at Home order.
We strongly encourage you to join us in the fight to end this as quickly as possible. We all must do our part, as we are in this together. Please feel free to reach out at any time, we are here to try to help in any way we can.
Thank you for your resilience, cooperation and patience,
Jen Callaway
Town Manager
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