Tourists, non-residents ordered to stay out of Gunnison County or face $5K fine, jail time

GUNNISON, Colo. (KRDO) -- Gunnison County in southwestern Colorado has a message for tourists and non-residents: stay out or face the penalties.

In an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19, the county issued an order banning tourism back in March. On April 3rd, the county extended the order to include non-residents, even those that own vacation homes within the county.

Those who don't voluntarily comply with the orders could face a $5,000 fine or imprisonment in the county jail for up to 18 months.

Anthony Sandstrom with Gunnison County's COVID-19 response team says these orders are meant to lessen the impact on the county's hospital system.

"We have a critical access hospital with only 24 beds and zero ICU units," said Sandstrom. "We were one of the earlier hotspots for COVID-19 in the state. We are still among the highest case rate per capita."

As of Tuesday, there have been 93 positive COVID-19 cases within Gunnison County, one of those cases proved to be fatal.

There are around 4,000 vacation homes within the county.

"If two people came to the county per one of those 4,000 properties it would add 50% to our nearly 16,000-person population," said Sandstrom.

If a secondary homeowner is already residing in the county, they are being asked to leave the county if it is safe to do so. If not, they can request a waiver explaining their reasons to stay.