Gov. Gavin Newsom provides new reopening guidelines amid COVID-19 pandemic
UPDATE: 8/28/20 2:16 p.m.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced a colored-coded, tier based reopening plan for the state Friday. Counties will now fall under one of four tiers: minimal (yellow), moderate (orange), substantial (red) and widespread (purple). Tiers are determined by the number of cases each county has as well as the percentage of people who test positive for COVID-19.
Minimal tier (yellow) counties are those where less than .01% of COVID-19 tests come back positive. Moderate tier (orange) counties are seeing no more than 4.9% of their tests come back positive, and substantial tier (red) counties are seeing a positivity rate that is anywhere between 5 and 8%. Finally, widespread tier (purple) counties are seeing more than 8% of their tests come back positive.
San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties are all widespread (purple) tier counties. 87% of Californians are currently living in purple tier counties.
In order for a county to move into a different tier, it must meet that tier's criteria for two straight weeks. Counties looking to move into a less severe tier (i.e. a purple tier county looking to become a red tier county) must remain in their current tier for at least three weeks before they can move into a new tier and expanded stage of reopening.
To learn more about what tier your county is in and what operations are permitted under that stage of reopening please visit https://covid19.ca.gov.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KION) Gov. Gavin Newsom is providing an update on the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At his last news conference, he said he would release updated guidelines for opening some industries Friday.
Santa Cruz County was taken off the state's monitoring list two weeks ago and is facing the potential to reopening some industries, including schools.
Monterey and San Benito Counties are still on the monitoring list.
According to the California Department of Public Health, there were more than 683,000 confirmed cases statewide as of Aug. 26. 12,550 people have died.
