CA Reopens: 9 More Counties Can Relax Coronavirus Restrictions

LOS ANGELES, CA — California's challenging winter coronavirus surge faded further into the background as transmission rates continued to fall, and nine more counties are able to exit restrictive reopening tiers this week, the state announced Tuesday.

No counties moved backward on the state's color-coded reopening map, and the state reported a 1.7 percent positivity rate — a new low that hasn't been seen since last year.

The following counties moved into the red tier on Tuesday: Kern, Nevada and Stanislaus. Six counties moved into the orange tier: Lassen, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Trinity and Yolo.

A little over a month ago, most counties were living under the state's tightest coronavirus restrictions in the purple tier. Now more than 83 percent of Californians are living under the red tier.

California allows counties in the red tier to reopen in the following sectors, with safety modifications.

• 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).

The orange tier allows businesses to increase their indoor capacity, and indoor pools can reopen, as can bowling alleys and card rooms. Music and sports venues can also open to outdoor audiences at 20 percent capacity.

More than 10 percent of Californians are now living under the orange tier, with just over 6 percent of residents still living in the purple tier.

Just eight counties remained in the purple tier — all of them inland. Nine counties were in the moderate tier, and two were in the yellow tier, officials said Tuesday.

The news comes as more businesses and schools in the state reopened this week. Cheerleaders, bands and choir groups were also permitted to return to youth sporting events this week.

What's more, counties that were affected by the pandemic more than others — such as Los Angeles and Orange counties — may be on pace to move into the orange tier by early April.

In L.A., public health Director Barbara Ferrer said that the county may indeed move to the orange tier next month, but recent spikes in cases have been seen in many states and other countries, she warned.

"We continue to remain concerned about the potential risks that can thwart our progress," Ferrer said. "The risks include increased circulation of variants of concern, increased case numbers across much of Europe and many states, reopenings and actions taken by individuals related to spring break and spring holidays."

Meanwhile, variants continued to present an issue for the country's progress, forcing health jurisdictions to race vaccinations against mutating variants.

As of Friday, there were 8,494 variant cases discovered in the Golden State, some of which are believed to spread more easily.

The most recent testing on a limited number of specimens showed 16 percent of them were identified as a variant first found in New York, 5 percent were a variant first identified in the United Kingdom, and 40 percent were a variant first found in California, which has spread worldwide.

Dr. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease specialist in Pasadena, told Patch last week that the next two months would be critical in terms of vaccinating California.

"The next two months in the United States will dictate what's going to happen," Shriner said. "There's been a leveling off in the number of cases at a very high level, much higher than it was in the summer. That is a perfect scenario for another surge to happen."

Spring break also presented another opportunity for people to gather, Shriner said. "We know you know, young people are very effective spreaders," she said.

But vaccinations have risen, despite an ongoing supply shortage. The state has now administered at least one shot to 25 percent of the Golden State's population, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This week, the state received about 1.8 million vaccine doses. Allocation will remain the same next week, with 1.8 million more vaccines arriving, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health told Patch Tuesday.

The state has administered some 15 million doses and broke a few records for vaccination speed last week, signaling that counties have stepped up distribution efforts.

Despite more capacity to inoculate more residents, some counties still struggle more than others. In Solano County, the health department issued a desperate plea for more vaccine on Monday.

"We’ve seen a significant decline in the allocation of vaccine to the County in recent allocations," Health Officer Beta Matyas wrote in a statement. "The lack of adequate supply has caused us to pause scheduling many first-dose mass-vaccination clinics, drastically slowing our effort to target and vaccinate our most vulnerable populations."

The county said that over the past two weeks, vaccine allocation has dropped by 60 percent. "Solano County is receiving substantially less vaccine allocation than all other similar sized counties, many of which have higher median household incomes," the statement read.

By comparison, Monterey County — which is closer in population and demographics to Solano — has received 17,100 more vaccines than Solano County in the past five weeks, the statement said.

Alternatively, for the first time, Riverside County reported a major shift in the balance between supply and demand. "We're shifting," said Riverside University Health System's Dr. Geoffrey Leung. "Vaccine supply is improving. We have more appointment slots ... than we have demand," he told the Riverside County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning.

Riverside County's vaccination portal showed a slew of appointments available this week. But there were also concerns among local leaders that senior residents were having trouble accessing vaccines.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that the state was about to turn a corner on the supply crisis.

"We're anticipating within 5 1/2 weeks where we can eliminate all of the tiering, so to speak, and make available vaccines to everybody across the spectrum because supply will exponentially increase," he told reporters.

READ MORE: Vaccine Supply Outstripping Demand In Riverside County

California Coronavirus Data As Of Tuesday

• 3,549,101 total confirmed cases have been reported to date, with 2,441 new cases reported Wednesday.
• 1.7 percent is the seven-day positivity rate.
• 52,525,010 tests have been conducted in California.
• 56,596 COVID-19 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic, including 51 recorded Tuesday.
• 15,152,884 vaccine doses have been administered statewide.

More Coronavirus Coverage From Patch California

• How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California
• 1 Year With Coronavirus In CA: 'A Moment In Time' Becomes An Eon
• CA Shifts To 3-Foot Desk Spacing In School Reopening Plan
• CA OKs Drumline, Band Events In New COVID-19 Youth Sports Rules
• 5 CA Variant, Vaccine Questions: What You Need To Know

The City News Service and Patch editor Toni McAllister contributed to this report.