County officials advise residents to refrain from visiting neighboring counties with COVID-19 surges

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY), As coronavirus cases spike in California governor Gavin Newsom is putting a halt on indoor operations across the golden state.

30 counties on the state's monitoring list have been ordered to close down operations for malls indoor restaurants and personal care services like salons and barbershops.

Imperial County health officials are asking residents to take note and not put themselves and our community at risk by traveling to neighboring counties that are COVID-19 hot spots.

“I think a lot of us specifically when we hit weekends like this weekend where we had extreme temperatures. We are used to leaving the valley and going to the beach. For the sake of our families for the sake of our coworkers and the people we love and the community we serve. We need to be responsible and not get ourselves in a risky situation where we are exposing ourselves and turn around and create community spread amongst ourselves," said Tony Rouhotas, CEO of Imperial County.

Imperial County was one of the first counties on the state’s watchlist and has remained on it.

To date, the county health department says nearly 600 coronavirus patients from the valley have been transferred to out of county hospitals.

With cases rising governor Newsom says finding hospital beds for patients in California may become challenging, prompting this recent action.

Imperial County’s per capita covid hospitalization rate is the second highest in the state at 40.1 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents.