Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted San Mateo and Alameda counties to the next level in the state’s phased coronavirus recovery plan Tuesday, allowing businesses in those counties to reopen more services.
San Mateo and Alameda counties now join Santa Clara, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Napa counties in tier two, which is color-coded red and indicates a “substantial” risk of COVID-19. As of Tuesday, all but two Bay Area counties were in tier two. Contra Costa and Sonoma counties remained in the purple tier one, where the risk of COVID-19 is considered “widespread.”
“We’re happy to see the fruits of labor in this strategy. Counties do move as we see stable, steady reductions in transmission,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
Tier two, or the red tier, mans a county has a new case rate of between four and seven per 100,000, and a testing positivity rate between 5 and 8%. Counties in the red tier can open restaurants indoors with 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
The state bases tier movements on data that’s two-weeks old.
Ghaly said he expects more counties to progress on the tier system next Tuesday.
“We want to make sure as we move forward in the face of flu season coming, winter, colder weather, maybe some rain, that we really do bring down our transmission, our test positivity, the number of cases that counties are looking into,” he said.
Check back for updates on this developing story.
