Stanislaus meets COVID criteria to move tiers. Getting to red at least a week away
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Stanislaus County has finally met both criteria for leaving the most restrictive tier of the California coronavirus reopening program.
But the county will have to maintain the numbers for another week to move from the purple to red tier. Counties in the red category can relax restrictions on businesses and activities and start working toward reopening of public schools.
A state update Tuesday showed a daily case rate of 4.8 per 100,000 for the county, which satisfies a criteria that daily new cases are 7 per 100,000 or less.
The county again was below the testing positivity criteria of 8 percent, as 3.5 percent of tests were positive. The state considered disease transmission data between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26.
State health officials announced a new equity metric Tuesday that aims to make sure larger counties are bringing down infection rates in low-income neighborhoods and among Latinos and Blacks, who have suffered higher rates of COVID illness in California.
Counties with larger ethnic disparities in COVID-19 transmission are expected to move more slowly through the color-coded tiers of the reopening process.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, Health and Human Services secretary for California, said the new equity metric did not keep any counties from moving out of the most restrictive tier status this week.
With the new metric, there can’t be a major difference between the county’s testing positivity rate and the rate recorded in disadvantaged neighborhoods. In Stanislaus County, almost 65 percent of coronavirus cases are among Latinos. The disease swept through seasonal agricultural workers and employees for essential industries when the county posted triple-digit new cases daily in July.
In Census tracts with the highest percentages of disadvantaged residents, the state will also require the test positivity rate to be 8 percent or lower in order for counties to be approved for the red tier. The rate must remain at that level for two weeks.
Chelsey Donohoo, an epidemiologist for Stanislaus County, said in Census tracts with lower incomes and crowded housing the positive test rates are below 8 percent. The county Health Services Agency planned to release more details later Tuesday.
The county is working on increasing testing in communities with disparities and bringing mobile testing to areas that have been more severely impacted by coronavirus, a spokesperson said.
Staff said the county should continue to meet the overall criteria for red status for the weeks ahead if residents wear face coverings, practice social distancing and hand-washing and make sure to get tested if they have symptoms. County residents need to continue with the precautions to move through the additional tiers and relax restrictions on commerce.
Moving to the red status allows the opening of indoor restaurant dining, fitness centers, movie theaters and church services with limits on capacity. Shopping malls and retail stores could expand to 50 percent capacity under the state’s COVID- 19 regulations.
Stanislaus County has remained in the most restrictive purple tier since Aug. 31 when Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration established a new color-coded system, which allows businesses and activities to open based on data showing lower disease transmission in counties.
On Tuesday, Merced was one of the counties approved for the less restrictive red tier.
Other Central Valley counties including San Joaquin, Sacramento, Fresno and Yolo were changed to red status a week ago. Stanislaus is now surrounded by red and orange counties (with even fewer restrictions) on the state’s color-coded coronavirus map.
Less than 20 of the state’s 58 counties remain in the purple category.
Under the state system, purple means the coronavirus is widespread in that county; red signifies substantial transmission; orange is moderate and yellow is minimal.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 2:41 PM.
