Health officials on high alert for the holidays

Health officials are urging the community to celebrate the holidays safely this year to keep COVID-19 from spreading.

Health officials are on high alert this holiday season and are pleading with the community to cut down on gatherings and do anything it takes to slow down the spread of covid-19.

Kezi 9 news reporter kennedy dendy is live in downtown eugene to break this all down.

Kennedy?

Matt, today oregon oregon broke its 4- day streak of record-breaking case counts.

We're talking over 5,500 cases in those 4 days.

So i asked experts about what type of direction the state could be going in if people aren't careful.

It's been exactly 8 months since governor kate brown signed that executive order warning everyone to stay home and save lives.

But throughout this 2-week freeze, people have begun wondering how effective these limits and shutdowns really are, especially for this holiday seasons this virus has proved to spread rapidly in even the smallest of gatherings.

Dr. halliday with peacehealth oregon says there's no magic number.

The limit of 6 people gives people a chance to still celebrate with those they love but in a way that's kept under control.

"we want to be able to continue to deliver all the great services that we're able to deliver to our community so it's really important that we get community cooperation with all of the different things that we're doing to decrease the amount of covid we have in our community right now we're orange but we're getting close to red."

She says the hospital would hate to have to reduce elective surgeries they had to do in the spring.

Her message to be aware of the ripple effects their decisions can create.

Again, leaders on national, state and local levels say it's up o do what it takes to beat this virus.

Live in eugene kennedy dendy kezi 9 news.