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COVID Concerns Loom As Rocklin Basketball Center Expected To Hold 40-Team Tournament After Outbreak

ROCKLIN (CBS13) – Defying health orders even after a COVID-19 outbreak, hundreds of basketball players are expected for a big tournament in Rocklin this weekend at the same facility linked to more than two dozen cases.

Players pulled up ready to hit the court at Courtside Basketball Center in Rocklin - which recently had 30 positive cases linked to the facility.

"I was kind of worried about it, but after I seen that they've done more precautions, I didn't know why but now I obviously know why," Mike Matsuo said.

"The facility has refused to cease indoor operations," Placer County Interim Health Officer Dr. Rob Oldham said earlier in the week.

Around 40 teams are anticipated to be at the facility this weekend for a tournament.

"Unfortunately, in this case, the outbreak has the potential to be large and geographically diverse which will make contact tracing in a timely manner difficult," Oldham said.

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Still, the Courtside Basketball Center owner told CBS13 the games will go on with precautions in place.

"We will continue to operate with the best safety practices that we have," said Jacob Biagi, owner. "Mandatory masks, temperature checks, refs wear masks, sanitizing machines."

"I feel safer now than I did before because they didn't have that sanitizer mister," Matsuo said. "Before, it was all sanitizer bottles, now they have a mister as you walk in."

Placer County's approach has been education over enforcement - but health officials say they have alerted the state health department about the situation at courtside.

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