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Gov. Newsom considers adding vaccination rates to tier requirements

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KION) Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday that he is talking to health officers around the state about incorporating vaccination rates into requirements for moving between tiers of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

He said this would not mean an end to the purple, or widespread, tier, but he expects that it will allow counties to move into less restrictive tiers faster.

He said more information will be released at a later time. He said in the news conference:

"And this I want to just clarify, this could be, I think, very helpful. There are conversations that we've been having with county local health officers and other local elected officials around the issue of the tiers in relationship to vaccination rates. And we want to incorporate vaccination rates into the tiering, and that will allow people to move more quickly through the tiers. But we're not resetting the tiers and re-calibrating and eliminating the purple tear in that process where that's the misinformation. But we are considering thresholds as it relates to the total number of vaccinations, particularly as we now get close to 10 million vaccines in the next number of days, we're likely to hit that threshold. So that's the conversations. And over the course of the next few days, we hope to socialize those more formally."

Gov. Gavin Newsom

Currently, counties need to have an adjusted case rate at or below 7.0, a positivity rate at or below 8.0% and a health equity quartile of 8.0% or lower.

These are the main changes that come with advancing to the red tier:

  • Retail- allowed to open indoors at 50% capacity
  • Indoor malls- allowed to open indoors at 50% capacity
  • Museums, zoos and aquariums- allowed to open indoors with 25% capacity
  • Movie theaters- allowed to open indoors with 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer
  • Gyms and fitness centers- allowed to open indoors at 10% capacity
  • Restaurants- allowed to open indoors with 25% capacity or 100 people. whichever is fewer

Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties are still in the purple tier.

These are the vaccine numbers for each of the counties:

Article Topic Follows: Coronavirus

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Avery Johnson

Avery Johnson is the Digital Content Director at KION News Channel 5/46.

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