California updated provincial allocations Tuesday afternoon, with Alameda, Santa Cruz and Solano counties advancing from the strictest purple level to the lighter red level, according to the state’s online dashboard following the pandemic. This will enable the three provinces to reopen new activities and business sectors from Wednesday, including a dining room with a capacity of 25%.
In the Bay, all provinces are in the red except Contra Costa and Sonoma which remain in the press.
Here is an overview of what allows the state to reopen in the red level:
Indoor restaurants (maximum 25% capacity or 100 people, depending on who is less)
-All stores are within (maximum 50% capacity)
-Shopping malls, swap meetings indoors (maximum 50% capacity, closed common areas, food courts with limited capacity)
Personal care services – hair and nail salons, hairdressers (open with edits)
Museums, zoos and aquariums (maximum 25% capacity)
Places of worship (maximum 25% capacity)
Indoor movie theaters (maximum 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is less)
-Gyms and fitness centers indoors (maximum 10% capacity)
Family entertainment centers (kart racing, mini golf, batting cages) just outside with alterations
Amusement parks, pubs without meals, bowling alleys, indoor playgrounds, live theater, saunas and steam rooms, nightclubs and festivals are not allowed in the red level.
It has been more than a month since Gavin Newsom’s government lifted the local home order, enabling the Bay Area provinces to reopen several business sectors, including outdoor eateries and some indoor personal services such as haircuts.
When the order ended on January 25, all nine provinces in the region had moved into the purple-coded reopening framework of the governor in the press level – and they are now slowly moving towards the softer red level.
The state’s system sorts provinces into four levels – “purple” (widespread), “red” (substantial), “orange” (moderate) or “yellow” (minimal) – which measures the distribution of COVID-19 and determines which species businesses and activities are allowed to open. The structure allows provinces to be more restricted and move more slowly than the state in the reopening, if they wish.
A province’s allocation is based on three criteria: the adjusted rate (number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, adjusted based on the test volume); the positivity rate (percentage of people who are positive for the virus of all individuals being tested); and a measure of health equity.
Provinces in the press category report more than seven new daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants and have a positive percentage of more than 8%. For a province to move into the red level, it must report an average of four to seven daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants and a test positivity of 5% to 8% for 14 consecutive days. The orange level requires one to 3.9 cases per 100,000 and a test positivity of 2% to 4.9%, and the yellow less than one case per 100,000 and less than 2% positivity.