Police broke up eight large house parties and issued at least 22 tickets related to public health violations and nuisance Friday and Saturday, according to the Boulder Police Department.

Current Boulder County health regulations limit social gatherings to 10 people from two different households, however, several photos and videos of large gatherings were posted online over the Halloween weekend.

Halloween weekend saw more tickets issued to college-aged residents than any other weekend since the city began keeping track two months ago.

This comes when Colorado has entered a third-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and Boulder County threatened to roll back its openings to Safer at Home Level 3 last week, instead of the current Level 2.

On Tuesday, the county’s two-week new case average was 187.4 per 100,000 population, far beyond the 175 case threshold for Level 3 regulations.

The University of Colorado Boulder reported significant progress in controlling its COVID-19 outbreak before the weekend.

Boulder County health officials said Halloween would be a critical turning point for the county, and that a new spike in COVID-19 cases would likely result in another stay-at-home order.

The CU Boulder outbreak began in late September and remains the largest outbreak in the state since the pandemic began with nearly 1,600 positive cases, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In addition to tickets, police referred students from CU Boulder to the office of student conduct for review and potential discipline from the university.

“Any students cited for violating public health orders over the weekend face possible sanctions by the university, including suspension, as well as potential fines and other penalties issued by the City of Boulder,” the university stated in a statement Sunday.

The violations are punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The addresses of the parties will be turned over to the city’s civil abatement team, police said.