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Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Imperial County to reinstate its shelter-in-place order Friday as new coronavirus cases overwhelm its hospital system, but stopped short of saying other counties should follow suit.

Southern California’s Imperial County is one of 15, including Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties, that the state has flagged for increased monitoring. It’s home to California’s highest per-capita case rate, with 3,000 cases per 100,000 residents, and has seen a test positivity rate of 23% over the last two weeks — drastically higher than California’s overall 5.3%.

“We’re now in a position where we are working with county officials and advising them to pull back and once again re-institute their stay-at-home orders,” Newsom said in a press briefing Friday, adding, “If they’re not able to come to some consensus, I am committed to intervening.”

As the outbreak has worsened in the county — which borders San Diego County and Mexico — over 500 sick people have been transferred out of the overburdened hospital system. Over the next few days, the state will convene with local officials to decide next steps and push for an immediate tightening of restrictions.

Newsom’s comments appeared limited to Imperial County. Other coronavirus epicenters such as Los Angeles have been approved for variances despite rising case and hospitalization numbers, a move that Newsom defended earlier this week.

When asked directly whether he would consider toggling back restrictions on a statewide basis, the governor said counties are allowed to “consider the specifics” of their own jurisdiction but that the state, too, reserves the right to do so.

“California is not one-size-fits-all … when you look at the prism of California, the only responsible way to look at it is through a bottom-up lens,” Newsom said.

The state confirmed another 5,052 positive COVID-19 Thursday and another 81 deaths, pushing the state’s confirmed case count to 200,476, according to data compiled by this news organization.

Before this week, there had been two days on which the number of new cases in California was higher than 4,000. Of the four days this week, there has been just one with less than 5,000 cases.

Evan Webeck contributed to this report.