Will life return to normal once SLO County reaches state’s COVID-19 red tier?
San Luis Obispo County has stayed within certain state COVID-19 testing and positivity rate guidelines for more than a week.
It will need to stay within those guidelines through next Tuesday, Sept. 22, in order for some virus-related restrictions to be lifted.
Currently, the county is in the “widespread,” or purple, tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, according to the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department.
If the county moves down a tier, which it could do if positivity and case rates remain low, businesses will be allowed to open indoors, some with increased capacity limits, and schools can reopen to in-person learning.
The tier system, annouced by the California Department of Public Health on Sept. 4, groups counties across the states into four color categories based on the counties’ testing positivity rate and the number of daily new cases per 100,000 people, known as case rate. The previous guidelines had six criteria for being on the county “watchlist” and no clear path for reopening if conditions improved.
Among the four colors, purple means that a county has widespread COVID-19 cases; that tier is followed by red, orange and yellow. As counties move down through the tiers, more business sectors may reopen, according to state guidelines.
Purple tier counties have higher than an 8% testing positivity rate and/or more than seven new cases per day per 100,000 residents.
Other than hair salons and barber shops being permitted to reopen, all restrictions enforced when San Luis Obispo County was put on the state’s coronavirus watchlist have remained the same.
What happens if SLO County moves into the red tier?
If the county continues to have a COVID-19 positivity rate below 8% — the county was at 2.9% as of Tuesday — and under seven cases per 100,000 residents — currently at 6.3 — then some restrictions can be lifted.
But life won’t be back to normal.
“Even in the least restrictive tier, we’re not talking about concert venues, we’re still not talking about parades, we’re still not talking about large weddings,” county Public Health Director Dr. Penny Borenstein said at a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday. “It’s a step back toward where we had been, but we still have a long way to go.”
Here‘s how businesses will be impacted if the county moves from the purple tier to the red tier:
- Retail: Increase indoor capacity from 25% to 50%.
- Shopping centers (malls, destination centers, swap meets): Increase indoor capacity from 25% to 50% and reduced capacity food courts.
- Personal care services: Allowed to open indoors.
- Museums, zoos and aquariums: Allowed to open indoors with maximum capacity of 25%.
- Places of worship: Allowed to open indoors with maximum capacity of 25% or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
- Movie theaters: Allowed to open indoors with maximum capacity of 25% of 100 people, whichever is fewer.
- Hotels and lodging: Allowed to open fitness centers at 10% maximum capacity.
- Gyms and fitness centers: Allowed to open indoors at 10% maximum capacity.
- Restaurants: Allowed to open indoors with max capacity of 25% or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
Schools will also be able to return to at least some in-person instruction with health guidelines such as mask wearing, physical distancing and increased sanitation.
The county Public Health Department may choose to maintain more restrictive measures if it deems those necessary.
Here’s a list of businesses not impacted by the transition to the red tier:
- Wineries: Still open outdoors only.
- Bars, breweries and distilleries where no meal is provided: Still closed.
- Family entertainment centers: Still open outdoors only.
- Card rooms and satellite wagering: Still open outdoors only.
- Offices: Still remote only.
- Professional sports: Still allowed without live audiences and with modifications.
In order for San Luis Obispo County to move to an even less restrictive tier than red, it must stay within the current tier for a minimum of three weeks. The county must also meet criteria for the next less restrictive tier for both measures for the prior two consecutive weeks in order to progress to the next tier.
What happens if local COVID-19 cases spike again?
If San Luis Obispo County’s coronavirus cases rise again and the positivity rate rises above 8% or the number of cases per 100,000 residents reaches above seven, the county will be forced to move back into the more restrictive tier.
That would revert operations back to how they are now within three days of the tier change.
“At any time, state and county public health officials may work together to determine targeted interventions or countywide modifications necessary to address impacted hospital capacity and drivers of disease transmission, as needed,” the state’s Public Health Department said on its website.
Schools that have received a waiver from the county Public Health Department would not be forced to revert back to online-only instruction.
“I often get asked: ‘Are we ever going to get back to life as we know it?’ I do believe that is the case,” Borenstein said at Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing. “But we need to be patient and need to reach out to our friends in different ways to make sure that we feel safe and secure and happy for the foreseeable future.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 3:05 PM.
