Overcrowded housing was a problem before the pandemic, but now it’s a key way the virus is spreading. With 12 people living in three bedrooms, it wasn’t surprising that once one person living in the house got sick with the coronavirus, others would, too. Juan Ledezma, the owner of a thrift store in Alturas, said most of the two dozen daily customers came in without a face covering. Tex Dowdy, the Modoc County sheriff, refuses to implement the mask order. Most residents still go maskless at supermarkets in Alturas, despite a statewide order to wear them in public places. “They were all around town.”Īlturas had gone ahead with a July 4 parade and had hosted motocross races. “This couple has been all over the place,” she said. Larranaga said that was not casting the net wide enough. When it announced the infections on Tuesday, the Health Department asked any residents who visited a bar in the past two weeks to call a hotline. The waitress and her husband had recently returned from a family vacation to Fresno, Ms. The Modoc County Health Services Department did not identify the two people who contracted the virus, but Jodie Larranaga, an owner of the Brass Rail, a bar and Basque restaurant, said a waitress who worked at the bar was one of the people who tested positive. Modoc may be isolated, but it is not an island. Now the message seems clear: If the virus made it to Modoc County, where the closest big town is a two-hour drive, it’s everywhere in California.
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