San Mateo County is joining San Francisco as the second county in the Bay Area to reach the least-restrictive stage of California’s COVID reopening plan, state officials announced Tuesday.
Meanwhile Sonoma and Monterey counties, which had been eligible to advance to the yellow tier of the color-coded system that is based on how prevalent coronavirus is locally, found out Tuesday they are staying put.
And, looking forward, case rates in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties have dipped low enough that they could advance next week.
Restrictions in the yellow tier are not dramatically different than those in the orange level — among the new steps are allowing bars that don’t serve food to operate indoors and setting higher capacity limits at certain indoor businesses, such as gyms. The county tier system as a whole is set to be retired on June 15, when Gov. Gavin Newsom has said California will lift most of its pandemic-related business restrictions.
Still, advancing to the yellow stage, which signifies “minimal” spread of COVID-19, can be a milestone for how far communities have come in driving down transmission of the deadly illness. That was the case last week, when Los Angeles County, once a national epicenter for the pandemic, reached that level, along with San Francisco.
“Moving to the yellow tier is a credit to everyone who has worn their masks to slow the spread and to the 76 percent of us here in San Mateo County who have rolled up their sleeves and gotten the vaccine,” San Mateo County Board of Supervisors President David Canepa said in statement Tuesday.
The looser restrictions are set to take effect Wednesday. Nine counties statewide have now reached the yellow tier.
Data posted by the state last week showed San Mateo, Sonoma and Monterey counties — plus Modoc in the state’s northeast corner and Mono along the eastern Sierra Nevada — all met the criteria to advance to the yellow tier. That criteria calls for the counties to average for at least two straight weeks an adjusted rate of fewer than 2 cases per 100,000 residents per day, and test positivity rates of less than 2%.
San Mateo and Mono counties cleared that benchmark this week, while Sonoma, Monterey and Modoc all saw slight increases that brought their case rates over 2. That means they will have to stay in the orange, or “moderate,” tier for at least the next two weeks.
State data released Tuesday showed Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties’ case rates have fallen into the yellow range, making them eligible to reach that tier next week if they don’t see an increase.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Napa counties are all set to stay in the orange tier — which is where 38 of the state’s 58 counties are classified — for at least the next two weeks as their case rates remain too high to advance.
