9 CA Counties Exit Restrictive Coronavirus Tiers

CALIFORNIA — Nine counties in California were given the green light to ease restrictions on businesses on Tuesday in the wake of a COVID-19 winter surge that devastated California. Regions around the state have reopened in recent weeks as vaccinations rise and cases fall.

The state also announced a 2.2 percent positivity rate over a two-week period Tuesday, a number that fell sharply from its winter high and is now beginning to level off.

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

The following counties were able to advance into the red tier on Tuesday: Alameda, Butte, Calaveras, Imperial, Santa Cruz and Solano.

Two counties, Mariposa and Plumas moved from the red tier to the orange, moderate tier. Alpine County also moved into the yellow, minimal tier.

No new counties moved back into a more restrictive tier, further proof the state's progress. California has already come a long way from a devastating winter surge. But 34 counties still remain in the purple tier.

Twenty counties now sit in the red tier, with three counties in the orange tier and one county in the yellow or minimal 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 lower).
• 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 lower).

Some of the state's most populous counties remained in the state's most restrictive tier, but some may be able to exit soon as Gov. Gavin Newsom recently revised California's pandemic reopening rules.

To address the inequities of the state's troubled vaccine rollout, 40 percent of coronavirus vaccines will now be set aside for California's most disadvantaged and affected regions.

After 2 million shots have been administered in these areas, the state said it will ease up on some of the requirements once needed to exit the most restrictive tiers. The state is likely to hit this goal soon, with 1.8 million doses administered in the state's most affected areas identified on the Healthy Places Index.

Once that threshold is met, the state will allow counties to move through tiers with somewhat higher case rates, the state said on Thursday.

"Increasing vaccinations in our hardest-hit communities is both morally right and good for public health because it will slow the spread of disease," Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary, said last week.

The rapid reopenings come as California prepares to mark the one-year milestone since tough restrictions first began affecting life in the Golden State in March 2020.

Newsom was scheduled to deliver a State of the State address Tuesday evening, with much of his speech focusing on the pandemic.

Newsom on Monday spoke from a vaccination center in the Central Valley about "getting back to whatever semblance of normalcy that we recall."

The state reported just 2,614 new cases of the virus on Tuesday, adding to a total of 3,507,266 confirmed cases to date. There have been 54,395 coronavirus deaths in California since the start of the pandemic.

There have also been 50,139,831 tests conducted in the state. This number represents an increase of 217,332 during a prior 24-hour reporting period.

Newsom on Monday announced that 210,224 of California's education staff had been vaccinated just a week after the state began setting aside 10 percent of its dosage supply for them.

"That should be great news for parents like me, parents like you and others that are encouraged and encouraging our teachers to safely get back into school to get our kids back to that in-person instruction they so desperately need," Newsom said Monday.

Counties that are still in the purple tier by the end of the month could see kids through second grade returning. About 80 percent of Californians were still living under purple tier restrictions as of Tuesday.

"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 last week, adding: "We're not slowing down."

Districts in counties that are in the red tier will be able to reopen classrooms for all elementary school grades, plus one grade in middle and high school, officials said. Nearly 20 percent of the population was living under the red tier as of Tuesday.

READ MORE: Volunteers At CA Vaccine Clinics Could Get Early Access To Shots

Cases continue to drop as vaccinations rise in the state, though not as rapidly as they were before. California reported that 10,628,752 vaccine doses had been administered statewide as of Monday.

California's vaccine rollout system has seen some dramatic changes over the last few weeks.

Blue Shield officially took the reins of the state's disjointed vaccine rollout earlier this month. By the end of the month, eligibility criteria for the vaccine will level off across all of the Golden State's counties — except perhaps for Santa Clara County. On Monday, Jeff Smith, a county executive, said the county would not sign a contract with Blue Shield to take over the area's rollout. It is unclear how state officials will handle instances like that.

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 is expected to 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, some 320,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines were set to arrive this week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine last week.

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

The state was administering about 1.4 million vaccines weekly. 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