The Poconos were marketed as a pandemic haven. Now the area is a COVID-19 hot spot.

The Instagram ad popped up on mobile phones in March — “Quarantine in the Poconos.”

Another ad asked, “Are you looking to escape the epicenter?”

With the pandemic spreading quickly, short-term rental firms and property owners on Airbnb marketed the Poconos area as a virus-free zone. But that campaign also helped spread COVID-19 in the Poconos and along the I-80 and I-78 corridors in eastern Pennsylvania, local officials say.

Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat said on Tuesday that 3% of the city’s population and that of the surrounding towns in Luzerne County have tested positive for the virus.

Cargill Meat Solutions temporarily closed its meatpacking plant last week just outside of Hazleton because the virus had infected nearly 20% of its employees. Workers also tested positive at an Amazon distribution center and a Mission Foods tortilla plant in the Hazleton area, the local Standard-Speaker newspaper has reported.

“A lot of people fled the New York area when it broke out for their safety and they brought [COVID-19] here,” Cusat said. “The numbers are alarming and it did jump up on us quickly.”

Monroe County — the Poconos gateway — now records Pennsylvania’s highest COVID-19 infection rate, 46.7 cases for every 10,000 residents. Second is Lehigh County with 45.6 cases and, third, Luzerne County, at 44.5, state Health Department data show.

Philadelphia has a substantially lower infection rate of 40.1 cases for every 10,000 residents.

The Poconos region’s ties to North Jersey and New York — and thus the flow of commuters, family, and friends between the two areas — are driving the explosion of COVID-19 cases, local officials say.

The area has remade itself over the last two decades into something of a New York bedroom community. Outsiders also own thousands of second or vacation homes, and a tourism industry of time-share units, hotels, and water parks draws half a million visitors to the area on weekends during peak tourism season.

But instead of good times, fear of the virus has driven people to the Poconos area over the last month.

“People wanted to get away from New York. If it was you or I, it would be the same thing,” said State Sen. Mario Scavello (R., Monroe).

Airbnb, Vrbo, and other firms list 3,000 homes for short-term rentals among Pike, Northampton, Carbon, and Monroe Counties, Scavello noted. At some of these, officials have observed four or five cars parked outside, indicating packed-to-the-walls homes.

Scavello asked state officials to clarify that short-term rentals were not “life-sustaining businesses” under Gov. Tom Wolf’s COVID-19 orders. Dennis M. Davis, the secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, sent Airbnb Inc. a letter asking the company to comply with the shutdown orders on April 7.

DCED spokesperson Casey Smith said Tuesday that Vrbo confirmed receipt of the letter but Airbnb has not.

“We’re watching them,” Scavello said of the short-term rentals. “What are you going to do? We would rather them not sign new leases until we get out of this mess.”

Meanwhile in Hazleton, Mayor Cusat readily acknowledges the big differences between his city with its Latino population and the Poconos: “There are no short-term rentals in Hazleton. Nobody is coming to Hazleton to vacation.”

But there are similar dynamics. Many people who live in Hazleton have friends or family in the New York area. Some of them escaped the New York virus epicenter for Hazleton but may have brought the virus with them. And, Hazleton residents still travel back and forth to New York.

Last week, Cargill Meat Solutions shuttered its 900-employee meatpacking plant in Hazleton after scores of employees tested positive for COVID-19. Union officials on Monday put the number of infected workers at 162. Cargill says it will reopen the plant when it’s safe.

The same union — the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 — also represents workers at the Mission Foods tortilla plant, just north of I-80 in Mountain Top. Because of concerns over COVID-19, union officials say, many of the plant’s hourly employees are calling out sick.

Plant manager Hugo Andrade told the Standard-Speaker last week that 22 of the 510 employees at its plant in Crestwood Industrial Park tested positive for COVID-19. Andrade said that "there is no indication that the employees contracted COVID-19 while present at our facility.”

The company could not be reached for comment.

An Amazon distribution warehouse employee has cited about three dozen confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the distribution center in the Humboldt Industrial Park.

Amazon spokesperson Alyssa Bronikowski did not provide the Standard-Speaker with the number of cases, saying, “We’re continuing to monitor the situation in our facilities and corporate offices, and we are taking proactive measures to protect employees and associates who have been in contact with anyone who has been diagnosed or becomes ill.”

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Two elected Hazleton-area officials, in an April 9 letter, called on Gov. Wolf and the state to enforce safe workplace guidelines on big employers to protect employees.

“The greater Hazleton area has seen dramatic community spread of the virus,” State Rep. Tarah Toohil (R., Luzerne) wrote in the letter. “We believe this spread has been caused, in part, by large employers unwilling or unable to adhere to Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine’s directive."

“It’s disturbing to see Luzerne County has become a hot spot for the spread of COVID-19,” added State Rep. Gerald Mullery (D., Luzerne). “I have heard from numerous constituents who are fearful of contracting the virus because their employers are not following the guidelines issued by the state.”

The letter did not name the employers.

To control the pandemic spread in Hazleton, Cusat has enacted an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew except for those traveling for work. The town also placed restrictions on ride-sharing. Four or more nonfamily members are not allowed to ride in a vehicle or gather in a public area, the order says.

Police are enforcing the curfew, but Mayor Cusat said he did not know how many people may have been cited for violations. “If people stick to the CDC guidelines, we will pull out of this OK,” Cusat said.

Scavello, the state senator, believes that the region’s health data could understate the extent of the pandemic in the area. When people are tested, they are identified by their driver’s license or other identification. So if people from New York or New Jersey test positive in the Poconos area, they are not counted as from Pennsylvania, officials said.

Scavello said, “I had two people drive up from New York and go right to the hospital because both the husband and wife had [COVID-19].”