7 CA Counties Move Into Red Tier, Making Way For More Reopenings

CALIFORNIA — As coronavirus cases in California continued to fall sharply from their winter height, health officials announced that seven counties would be able to reopen further on Tuesday.

The state also announced a 2.6 percent positivity rate over a two-week period Tuesday.

"Only 7 other states have a lower positivity rate than we do," Newsom tweeted on Tuesday.

The seven counties that moved out of the state's widespread, purple tier and into the substantial, red tier on Tuesday were able to show a reduced positivity rate between 5-8 percent for two weeks in a row.

The following counties were able to advance into the red tier on Tuesday: El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Napa, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Clara.

No new counties moved back into a more restrictive tier, showing clear progress for the state, which has already come a long way from a devastating winter surge. But 40 counties still remained in the purple tier.

Sixteen counties now sit in the red tier, with two counties in the orange, moderate tier.

California allows counties in the red tier to reopen the following sectors with safety modifications in place:

• shopping centers (50 percent capacity; closed common areas and reduced-capacity food courts)
• indoor dining (25 percent capacity)
• fitness centers (10 percent capacity)
• places of worship (25 percent capacity or 100 people — whichever is fewer)
• nail salons
• massage facilities
• museums (25 percent capacity)
• zoos (25 percent capacity)
• aquariums (25 percent capacity)
• movie theaters (25 percent capacity or 100 people — whichever is fewer)

The state reported just 2,533 new cases of the virus on Tuesday, adding to a total of 3,481,611 confirmed cases to date. On Monday, the state had reported nearly a thousand more cases.

"Things are moving in the right direction, things seem to be stabilizing," Newsom said at a news conference on Monday. "We're seeing vaccinations increase, we're seeing the positivity in case rates decrease."

But Newsom also warned of a "plateau."

"One needs to be mindful of that," he said Monday after unveiling a plan to reopen most public schools by the end of March. If the state Senate votes on Thursday to pass the new plan devised by Newsom and top lawmakers, children could begin returning to in-person instruction by the end of the month, raising some risk for transmission.

Counties that are still in the purple tier by the end of the month could see kids through second grade returning. On Tuesday, 87.1 percent of Californians were still living under purple tier restrictions.

"We're not waiting to get out of this purple tier in order to get our kids safely back into in-person instruction," Newsom said Monday. "...we're not slowing down..."

Districts in counties that are in the substantial or red tier will be able to reopen classrooms for all elementary school grades, plus one grade in middle and high school, officials said. As of Tuesday, 12.9 percent of the population was living under the red tier.

READ MORE: Back To School: CA Lawmakers Reach Deal For In-Class Instruction

Cases are continuing to drop as vaccinations rise in the state. California reported that 9,313,799 vaccine doses had been administered statewide.

California's vaccine rollout system and supply will also see some dramatic changes over the next few weeks.

Blue Shield officially took the reins of the state's muddled vaccine rollout Monday. By the end of the month, eligibility criteria for the vaccine will be leveled across all of the Golden State's 58 counties.

The insurer was tasked with managing the state's new vaccine network following mass confusion and frustration spurred by previous decisions to allow counties discretion for setting vaccine eligibility.

Going forward, Blue Shield will make recommendations on how many doses each county will get and who will get them based on benchmarks set by the state.

As the state continues to grapple with a vaccine supply crisis, a new arrow in the state's vaccine quiver could materialize as early as this week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine on Saturday. On Friday, Newsom said the state could get 380,300 doses of the new vaccine sometime this week and for the next several weeks, eventually bringing some 1.1 million doses to California.

There are several benefits that make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine more accessible than those from Moderna or Pfizer. The new product does not require ultra-cold storage, and it consists of only a single shot, Newsom said Friday.

The state has been administering about 1.4 million vaccines weekly, but officials aim to bring that up to 4 million per week by the end of April.

Read more about coronavirus and vaccines from Patch California:

• CA's Vaccine Rollout Is Revamped Again: What To Know
• Back To School: CA Lawmakers Reach Deal For In-Class Instruction
• CA Could Get 1.1M Johnson & Johnson Vaccines In The Next 3 Weeks
• How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California
• When Will CA's Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Improve?
• 5 CA Variant, Vaccine Questions: What You Need To Know
• 90k Vaccinations Could Be Canceled In NorCal Amid Dosage Deficit