6 California counties get one last promotion before June 15 end to COVID-19 tiers

California health officials on Tuesday released the final list of counties’ COVID-19 reopening tier levels, with the state scheduled to drop the COVID-19 tier framework June 15 and do away with many restrictions that have been imposed on businesses and activities for the past 15 months.

The California Department of Public Health promoted six counties in total. Alameda, Napa, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara each moved into the least restrictive of the four tiers, yellow. Stanislaus County advanced from red into orange, the second-loosest level.

The changes will allow loosened capacity limits and restrictions one week ahead of the planned end date to the tier blueprint.

California’s tiers, introduced in August as a system for gradual economic reopening, are being dropped as statewide virus rates continue to subside, and as a majority of eligible residents are now fully vaccinated, according to CDPH.

With Tuesday’s moves, all but three of the state’s 58 counties will go into next week’s reopening in either the orange or yellow tier: Del Norte, Shasta and Yuba counties remain in the tighter red tier, which CDPH says denotes “substantial” spread of the coronavirus.

No counties have been in the strictest tier — purple or “widespread” COVID-19 activity, which kept restaurant dining rooms, gyms, movie theaters and several other types of establishments closed for indoor operations — since early April.

Counties that entered this week in the yellow tier include Los Angeles and San Francisco. Sacramento and the rest of the capital region, except Yuba County, entered this week in orange.

Kings, Plumas and Yuba counties had entered this week eligible for promotion if their infection rates held below the necessary thresholds — six daily cases per 100,000 for the orange tier and two per 100,000 for the yellow tier — but spiked above those rates. Kings (2.5 per 100,000) and Plumas (3.0) missed the yellow-tier mark, and Yuba just barely missed orange, coming in at 6.1 per 100,000.

The red tier allows most types of businesses open, with strict capacity limits and other modifications. Promotion from red to orange eases capacity limits, allows a few more types of indoor businesses to open and permits larger crowd sizes at both indoor and outdoor events. Moving from orange to yellow loosens capacity limits further.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health leaders for more than two months have targeted June 15 for reopening California’s economy. The date falls two months after the state opened vaccine eligibility to all residents 16 and older. Ages 12 through 15 became eligible in mid-May.

On June 15, most capacity limits and social distancing restrictions will be lifted at businesses, and the state will adopt federal recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on face coverings, meaning masks in many public settings will no longer be mandatory for the fully vaccinated.

There will continue to be some mandatory as well as recommended restrictions for so-called “mega events” — those that draw crowds of more than 5,000 indoors or more than 10,000 outdoors, according to CDPH. Masks will also still be required in a few other settings such as on public transportation.

Additionally, the Cal/OSHA standards board last week voted in favor of new COVID-19 safety standards saying those working indoors must wear a mask unless everyone in the room is fully vaccinated. The board also voted to convene a subcommittee to quickly update that standard, though officials said it will likely take until August to make any significant changes.

Newsom said Friday that though the June 15 reopening will proceed as planned, California will not end its state of emergency on that date because COVID-19 “has not been extinguished.”

California COVID-19 rates still shrinking

Although not extinguished, COVID-19 activity in California remains exceptionally low.

CDPH on Tuesday reported the state’s test positivity rate over the preceding week at 0.7%, tied with late May for California’s lowest reading in that key metric since the pandemic began. Diagnostic tests are now returning positive at a rate nearly 25 times lower than the peak of the health crisis in early January, when the rate exceeded 17%.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed California’s positivity slightly lower, at 0.6%. That tied the Golden State with Rhode Island for third-lowest among all 50 states, both behind Massachusetts and New York, which were each reported at 0.5%. The national average was an even 2%.

State health officials on Monday also reported just over 1,000 patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus and 219 in intensive care units, the fewest for each metric since the start of the health crisis; each total increased very slightly Tuesday. When CDPH began keeping track in March 2020, there were about 1,300 hospitalized and 550 in ICUs; at the state’s peak, nearly 22,000 were hospitalized with almost 5,000 in intensive care.

Fatalities, which in mid-January flooded California at a rate of nearly 680 a day, have plummeted to about 18 a day, an almost 40-fold decrease in the course of about four months.

To date, there have been a little more than 3.69 million lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 62,479 deaths from the virus in California, CDPH reported Tuesday.

Nearly half of state fully vaccinated

California has surpassed 18.1 million residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with an additional 4.03 million partially vaccinated, having received one of the two necessary doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, CDPH said Tuesday.

Those tallies mean that about 46% of California’s overall population are fully protected via vaccine and about 56% are at least partially vaccinated.

Vaccines are currently available only to those 12 and older, who make up about 34 million of the state’s 39.5 million residents. That means among eligible recipients, about 53% are fully vaccinated and more than 65% have had at least a first dose.

President Joe Biden has set a goal of having 70% of U.S. adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. The CDC reports that 71% of California adults have had a dose, making it one of 13 states to have reached that goal. The national rate as of Monday was 64%.

Some health experts have cited 70% as a rough, low-end estimate for a vaccination rate that likely must be reached before a community can reach herd immunity status.

Other experts have estimated the herd immunity threshold at 85% or higher. The true rate will depend on the prevalence of genetic variants of the virus that are more transmissible and/or can evade some level of vaccine protection, as well as on how many residents have natural immunity via prior infection.

Whether or not herd immunity is attained, high vaccination rates substantially slow spread of the virus and greatly reduce hospitalizations and fatalities from COVID-19.

Sacramento-area numbers: Over 170,000 cumulative cases

The six-county capital region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties has reported more than 170,000 lab-confirmed cases and at least 2,483 virus deaths over the course of the pandemic.

Sacramento County has reported 107,030 cases and 1,716 resident deaths from COVID-19, last updated Tuesday morning.

The countywide hospitalized total has generally been on the decline the past few weeks. CDPH reported Sacramento’s tally at 65 patients Tuesday after dropping to 62 on Sunday, which marked the county’s lowest point since June 2020. The ICU total has grown the past week, from 18 to 22.

Hospitalizations in Sacramento peaked the week of Christmas, when nearly 520 were concurrently hospitalized, nearly one-fifth of the county’s licensed bed total.

Placer County health officials have confirmed a total of 23,196 infections and 297 deaths through Monday.

State data on Tuesday showed 34 virus patients in Placer hospitals, up from 29 one week earlier, with the ICU count jumping from four to nine.

Yolo County has reported 14,025 confirmed cases and 208 resident deaths.

Yolo had one virus patient hospitalized as of Tuesday’s state data update, down from two a week earlier, with none in intensive care either day.

El Dorado County has reported 10,330 positive test results and 115 deaths.

State data showed El Dorado with four hospitalized patients, up from three a week earlier, but with the ICU count dropping from one to zero in the past week.

In Sutter County, at least 9,587 residents have tested positive for the virus and 106 have died. Yuba County, which shares a health office with Sutter, has reported 6,423 total infections and 41 dead.

Adventist-Rideout in Marysville — Yuba-Sutter bi-county region’s lone hospital — increased from four hospitalized virus patients early last week to 11 as of Tuesday’s update. The ICU total increased from zero to one.