Merced remains in red COVID tier, Fresno, Kings counties advance to orange
%20(1)%20(2)%20(1).jpg)
Fresno and Kings counties took another step toward reopening more businesses and expanding operations at others on Tuesday, each earning a place in a less restrictive tier of the state’s coronavirus reopening program.
Meanwhile, Merced County, along with Madera and Stanislaus counties, remained in the red tier on Tuesday.
The red Tier 2 of the color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy indicates “substantial” spread of COVID-19 among residents in a county. The orange Tier 3 represents “moderate” transmission of the virus.
The California Department of Public Health announced the tier assignments Tuesday morning.
Under orange tier, businesses that have previously been allowed to open for indoor operations in the red tier can further expand to use more of their indoor capacity.
For example, under orange tier restaurants can increase service in their dining rooms to 50% of capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer. Movie theaters also can boost their seating from 25% under red-tier restrictions to 50% or 200 people, whichever is fewer.
Museums are able to expand their indoor attractions to 50% of capacity. Retailers that have faced a 50% capacity cap under red Tier 2 now have no capacity limits under orange Tier 3. But the same operational modifications that apply to all tiers and business sectors – including requirements for staff and customers to wear face masks and other safety precautions including physical distancing – continue to apply.
The tier assignments are based on two key measures: the number of new cases that arise each day over the course of a week and calculated as a rate per 100,000 residents, and the percentage of residents tested over the course of a week whose results come back positive for COVID-19. Tuesday’s tier assignments were based on cases and tests for the week ending April 10.
A county must be in one tier for three weeks before it can be promoted to a less-restrictive tier, including meeting the standards of the new tier for two straight weeks.
Fresno County completed its third week in red Tier 2 on Tuesday, and was ahead of the orange-tier standards to be eligible for promotion.
Merced County, which last week was promoted from purple Tier 1 denoting “widespread” transmission of the virus into red Tier 2, maintained its status with improvements to the new-case rate, at 8.0 per 100,000 residents, and testing positivity at 3.6%.
California now has no counties remaining in purple Tier 1, the most restrictive level of the statewide blueprint. In addition to Madera and Merced counties, there are 15 counties now in red Tier 2. Fresno, Kings, Mariposa and Tulare are among 38 counties in orange Tier 3.
The blueprint and its county-by-county program of color-coded tiers was introduced last August as state officials established systematic, risk-based approach to guide businesses in reopening from sweeping measures put in place last spring to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to fully reopen California’s economy and do away with the tier system by mid-June – if the state has enough vaccines to give coronavirus shots to anyone age 16 and older who wants one, and if hospitalization rates of COVID-19 cases are low and stable.
Merced County reports one new death
The Merced County Department of Public Health reported one new COVID-19 related death on Tuesday afternoon, raising the total of fatalities to 453 since the start of the pandemic.
The latest death was a man, over the age of 65 who was known to have underlying health conditions.
On Wednesday, Merced County also reported 22 new COVID-19 confirmed cases, bringing the total of residents infected by the virus to 31,289 since the start of the pandemic.
There are currently 350 residents estimated to be actively infected with the virus.
The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the coronavirus is eight — with two people in the ICU.
According to the state, Merced County hospitals had 10 ICU beds remaining as of Tuesday.
Merced County has a positivity rate of 3.5%, indicating the level of people among those tested who had a positive result.
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 5:26 PM.
