SLO County lands on state coronavirus watch list

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- San Luis Obispo County has officially landed on the state's COVID-19 County Monitoring List.

An update provided Monday morning on the website for the California Department of Public Health, listed the county with a case rate exceeding a metric that measures elevated disease transmission.

The state requires counties have no more than 100 cases per 100,000 people during a 14-day period.

San Luis Obispo County was listed as having 114 cases per 100,000 people.

The county's addition to the list doesn't come as much of a surprise. Last week, San Luis Obispo County officials said they expected the county to end up on the state's monitoring list. On Wednesday, Gov. Newsom added three additional counties to the state's list, but San Luis Obispo County was spared for the time being.

Counties that remain on the Monitoring List for three consecutive days will be required to shut down several business sectors, unless they can modify operations to provide outside or pick up services.

Businesses that are affected include, dine-in restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theatres, family entertainment centers (bowling alleys, miniature golf, batting cages, arcades), zoos and museums, and cardrooms.

Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are also currently on the Monitoring List for both exceeding the same case metric as San Luis Obispo County.

Thirty of California's 58 counties are also above the same metric for cases per 100,000 people.