New COVID-19 restrictions will take effect in Shasta County on Sunday.
Places such as restaurants, gyms and places of worship will be required to operate outdoors only.
Tim Mapes, a spokesman for the Health and Human Services Agency, says the county tried to contain outbreaks that happened a few weeks ago, but cases have continued to rise.
“We have still continued to see a spike in cases that we really cannot attribute to anything other than community spread. And so as of Wednesday this week we were placed into the purple, widespread, most restrictive tier,” Mapes said.
Hospitalizations have gone up in the county. Seventeen people were hospitalized with the disease as of Wednesday. But Mapes says hospital capacity has not been a problem so far.
“They’ve been telling us that they have been you know still doing OK. And they have surge plans in place that they have not had to initiate as of yet,” Mapes said. “We certainly don’t want to see hospitalizations go up, and if they do start to look a little bit dangerous we’re certain that the hospitals would let us know that and we would work even more closely than we do.”
Mapes advised residents to take precautions as the holiday travel season approaches.