Stanislaus County will stay in COVID red tier until reopening date, official predicts
Stanislaus County will probably stay in the state’s coronavirus red tier until the June 15 date for reopening California’s economy, the county’s public health officer said Tuesday.
The county’s unadjusted rate of new COVID-19 cases was 7.8 per 100,000 in a weekly update Tuesday and the countywide test positivity was 3.1 percent, which does not qualify the county for the state’s less restrictive orange tier.
“We don’t have the metrics for orange yet and probably won’t get there by June 15,” Public Health Officer Julie Vaishampayan said in a presentation to county supervisors.
Following the state update Tuesday, eight counties in California remained in the red tier, 35 were orange and 15 were in yellow. The state has assigned counties to different levels of coronavirus regulations based on four tiers, from purple for widespread transmission to red for substantial spread, orange for moderate and yellow for minimal.
Emboldened by low disease transmission across most of California, the state expects to reopen the economy in mid-June, ending the color-coded tier system and removing capacity limits on businesses.
Starting June 15, vaccinated residents will be able to remove their masks in social settings in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and resume most normal activities.
Vaishampayan cited seroprevalence data suggesting 71.2 percent of adults in the San Joaquin Valley have some immunity against COVID-19 because of vaccination or a prior COVID-19 infection. The San Joaquin region was second in the state in seroprevalence behind the Imperial Valley.
“Our vaccination rate has lagged behind the Bay Area but we’ve had more infections in the Central Valley and our seroprevalence is higher,” Vaishampayan said.
Seroprevalence is the percentage of the population with antibodies to the coronavirus and may indicate that many Valley adults now have immunity against COVID-19, though the numbers are estimates, Vaishampayan said.
State health officials collect the data from blood donors, lab tests and surveillance studies to come up with the estimates.
Stanislaus County’s effort to vaccinate local residents against the coronavirus slowed to 3,262 doses last week, down from 3,788 and 5,542 in the previous two weeks.
State data shows that 167,197 county residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or 30 percent of the county population.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
