Fresno, Valley counties hold places among state’s COVID-19 reopening tiers
Fresno County maintained its place in California’s orange tier for easing coronavirus-driven limitations on business and social activities this week, but one neighboring county is poised to advance to the least-restrictive yellow tier as soon as next week.
Fresno, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties all remain in orange Tier 3 of the state’s color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy in the latest assessments released Tuesday by the state Department of Public Health. Tier 3, denoting “moderate” spread of the virus within a county, is the second-least restrictive level of the four-stage system. Mariposa County stayed in yellow Tier 4 this week.
The blueprint tiers are scheduled to come to an end as California moves to a full reopening of its economy in two weeks, on June 15.
With an improvement in its rate of new daily coronavirus cases and a lower percentage of people testing positive for the virus, Kings County attained a first week of meeting the criteria needed to move into yellow Tier 4. If the county maintains that improvement in next week’s assessments, it could spend the final week of the state’s blueprint system in the yellow tier.
Yellow Tier 4 represents “minimal” transmission of COVID-19 in a county. Until then, however, businesses and social activities are supposed to continue operating under the orange-tier rules. Those include capacity limitations on restaurants, movie theaters, gyms and other kinds of businesses.
Getting into yellow Tier 4 would provide even more latitude for businesses and gatherings than what was afforded in orange Tier 3. Notably, bars that don’t serve food can reopen for indoor service in the yellow tier. They could only operate outdoors in the orange tier, and were closed entirely in both purple Tier 1, denoting “widespread” transmission of the virus, or red Tier 2 indicating “substantial” viral spread.
Regardless of which tier a county is in, however, there are operational modifications for all business sectors – including requirements for staff and customers to wear face masks and other safety precautions including physical distancing – that continue to apply.
How are the tiers set?
The tier assignments are based on three key measures: the number of new cases that arise each day, as a rate per 100,000 residents, over the course of a week; the percentage of people tested over the course of the week whose results came back positive for a COVID-19 infection; and a health equity score reflecting the percentage of positive tests in the county’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Tuesday’s tier assignments reflect cases and tests arising in the week ending May 22. In that week, the state recorded 221 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Fresno County, or 3.1 daily cases per 100,000 residents, a rate that was unchanged from the previous week. In testing, 2% of people tested for the virus came back with positive results, compared to 1.9% the prior week. The health equity measure rose to 3.2% of residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods testing positive, up from 2.8% in the previous week.
All three measures are within the range to keep Fresno County safely in the orange tier, but not low enough to move into yellow Tier 4.
Case rates and testing positivity rates in neighboring counties included:
Kings County: The new-case rate was reported at 1.7 per day as a rate per 100,000 residents; testing positivity was 0.8%; and the health-equity rate was 1.4%. Both the new-case and testing positivity rates were down from the previous week, and all three measures meet the standards to move into yellow. A county must achieve those for two straight weeks before moving forward in the tiers.
Madera County: A new-case rate of 2.3 per 100,000, down from 3.0 the previous week; testing positive of 1.3%, down from 1.5% a week earlier; and a health equity measure of 1.9%, slightly higher than the previous week’s 1.8%.
Mariposa County: The new-case rate was 1.6 per 100,000 residents, and the testing positivity rate was 1.0%. Both are unchanged from the previous week. The health equity measure is not applied to sparsely populated counties such as Mariposa County.
Merced County: A new-case rate of 5.5 per 100,000 residents each day, up sharply from 4.1 cases the previous week. Testing positivity also increased to 2.9%, compared to 2.1% a week earlier. The health-equity percentage climbed to 4.5%, up from 1.3% the prior week.
Tulare County: A new-case rate of 2.2 per 100,000 residents each day, down from 3.7 cases the prior week; testing positivity was 1.5%, down from 1.9% a week earlier; and the health equity testing rate dropped to 1.8%, compared to 2.8% in the previous week.
Statewide, four more counties – Marin, Monterey, San Benito and Ventura – moved into the least-restrictive yellow tier of the state blueprint this week. Nineteen of California’s 58 counties are now in yellow Tier 4.
Another 35 counties are in orange Tier 3, joined this week by Nevada, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Solano counties that advanced from red Tier 2 this week.
Only four California counties – Del Norte, Shasta, Stanislaus and Yuba – remain in red Tier 2. There are no counties in purple Tier 1, which represents “widespread” transmission of the virus in a county.
May cases, fatalities in the Valley
Of six counties in the central San Joaquin Valley, three did not provide any case updates over the three-day Memorial Day weekend until Tuesday. The latest county totals include:
Fresno County: 86 new cases over Saturday, Sunday and Monday; 1,310 for the month of May, and 102.499 to date since the first local cases were reported in March 2020. Eight more cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the cumulative total to 102,507. Two additional deaths were acknowledged over the weekend, bringing the total for May to 39, and 1,706 since March 2020.
Kings County: 17 new cases over the weekend; 190 for the month of May; and 23,076 to date. No additional deaths were reported on the weekend; one for the month of May, and 247 to date. No additional cases or deaths were reported Tuesday.
Madera County: No reports over the holiday weekend. Eighteen new COVID-19 cases were reported Tuesday for the holiday weekend, for a total of 157 in May and 16,448 to date. Five deaths were reported in May, 245 to date.
Mariposa County: Four new cases over the weekend, 17 in the month of May, 458 to date; no additional deaths for the weekend or the month, seven to date.
Merced County: No reports over the holiday weekend. On Tuesday, the county reported 26 cases on Tuesday, including 22 over the three-day weekend for a total of 570 in the month of May, and 32,168 to date. One additional death was reported on Tuesday for the weekend, for 16 fatalities in May and 470 to date.
Tulare County: No reports over the holiday weekend. On Tuesday, the county reported 31 cases covering the three-day weekendAs of Friday, Tulare County had reported a net gain of 441 cases over the month of May, 49,918 to date. Twelve deaths were reported in May prior to the weekend, 846 to date.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Fresno, Valley counties hold places among state’s COVID-19 reopening tiers."
