Placer joins state ‘watch list’ and urges restaurants to prepare to end indoor dining
Officials on Thursday night urged restaurants to prepare to temporarily end indoor dining in Placer County after it was officially added to a state “watch list” of counties with a rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
A county on the monitoring list for three consecutive days is automatically required by the state to stop serving meals indoors at restaurants for at least three weeks. Placer County was added to the list Thursday.
In a Facebook post, Placer County officials also urged wineries and tasting rooms, family entertainment venues, zoos and museums to prepare to shift to outdoor operations during the three-week ban.
The 21-day restrictions for these counties also means other higher-risk facilities such as bowling alleys and movie theaters close. Placer County officials, however, urged movie theaters and cardrooms to prepare to switch to outdoor operations.
All brewpubs, breweries, bars and pubs would need to close, both indoors and outdoors in Placer County, but officials said Thursday that they could remain open if they offer meals to customers outdoors.
Placer County public health officials reported 23 new cases Thursday morning for an all-time total of 993 cases and 11 deaths due to the virus. The county on Thursday had roughly 320 cases considered active and 29 patients hospitalized; three of them are in an intensive care unit. On Monday, officials were already expecting the county would be added to the state monitoring list within a week.
An alarming surge of new cases throughout the Sacramento region has authorities worried local hospitals won’t be able to handle an ever-increasing number of patients infected with COVID-19, which caused by the coronavirus.
Sacramento County has been on state’s watch list for two weeks and was required to end indoor restaurant dining last week. The state placed Yolo County on the watch list Wednesday morning, after officials there had voluntarily rolled back some business reopenings.
