Shasta health leaders keeping an eye out for possible post-holiday surge

With the holiday season wrapping up, Shasta County health leaders are keeping an eye on any possible surges.

At six -- now that the holiday season is over..

Shasta county health leaders are keeping a close watch on the number of cases..

Action news now reporter ana torrea spoke with people in redding and health officials about the outlook.

### with the holidays ending-- community members.... dene kipp, lives in redding: oh i'm sure there will be a rise in cases i've very careful and i don't go out much among people.

Pat bunnelle, lives in redding: and we will, if you follow the statistics and you read the paper, we will have more.

It's inevitable are bracing for more covid-19 cases.

Dene: there's going to be more isolation and little chance to be out among people for a couple of weeks, shasta county was on the downward decline.

But now, those numbers have gone back up.

Robin schurig, public health branch director: both our test rate and test positivity had been decreasing for a couple of weeks in a row, we were headed in the right direction.

But with the latest date that came out yesterday both of those metrics increased.

Ana torrea: shasta county is still in the purple tier under the blueprint for a safer economy.

The northern california region's icu capacity is still above 15%.

Shasta health leaders say testing plays a role in shifting shasta county out of the purple tier.

Dr. karen ramstrom, shasta county public health officer: testing is a key part of our containment strategy, especially as we try to drive our numbers down.

And as the weeks go on, shasta health leaders will be watching and waiting for that possible post-holiday surge.

Reporting in redding, ana torrea, action news now coverage you can count