Stanislaus is still in the red tier, but needs to work hard to stay there, officials say
Stanislaus County barely made the cut Tuesday for staying in the coronavirus program’s red tier but residents will have to work hard to avoid a backslide to tighter state restrictions on local businesses.
An update from the California Department of Public Health adjusted the county’s daily case rate to 6.9 per 100,000, just below the 7 cases per 100,000 ceiling for red status. Being in the red tier provides more latitude for restaurants, other businesses and churches.
The state has adjusted the case rate for larger counties where the testing volume is lower than the state median. Before the adjustment, Stanislaus County’s case rate was 6.5 per 100,000. Its positivity rate was 3.9 percent, which falls within the orange tier level.
Tuesday’s update means the county will stay in the red tier for at least two more weeks. But county health officials are concerned that case numbers last week were too high to meet the requirements for red status and a second week of those numbers could cause a demotion to the most restrictive purple tier.
County leaders also stressed that schools can reopen for 7th to 12th graders, starting Oct. 27, because the county has been in the red tier for two weeks. School districts are making their own decisions on reopening and were not in a rush.
California’s stringent plan for dealing with COVID-19 places counties in color-coded tiers based on the rate of new cases and testing positivity. Stanislaus was removed from the most restrictive purple tier Oct. 12. The red tier for counties with “substantial” spread of coronavirus has fewer restrictions on businesses; counties can also move to orange and yellow tiers by showing it’s safe to reopen additional sectors of the economy.
To keep from sliding back to purple, Stanislaus County public health is working on mobile testing, as well as messaging to urge the public to take basic precautions including face coverings, social distancing and hand-washing. The county is recommending alternative activities for Halloween to keep from spreading the virus through trick-or-treating or parties.
By offering testing opportunities at the downtown Modesto library and the Crows Landing Road flea market, more than 400 tests were completed in the past week, staff said.
That’s in addition to the regular testing at the Salida library, a neighborhood center in west Modesto and in Turlock. Plans for mobile testing this week include Davis High School, Mark Twain Junior High and the Cambodian Center in Modesto and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ceres.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, told county supervisors Tuesday local cases have been around 50 per day in the past week. New cases should be under 40 per day for the red tier metric.
“We keep hovering quite close to purple,” Vaishampayan said.
Tuesday’s state update again penalized the county for doing less testing than other counties in California. It caused an adjustment in the case rate from 6.5 per 100,000 to 6.9.
The county through an adjudication process has tried to demonstrate that some testing labs are not set up to report electronically to the state’s CalREDIE reporting system. The county’s claim Oct. 16 showed that 1,118 tests done at local nursing homes and other facilities were not factored into the state’s Sept. 28 decision that found the county narrowly missed the red criteria.
After reviewing the county’s arguments, state officials agreed the county’s daily case rate should not have been adjusted higher Sept. 28 due to testing volume. Vaishampayan said it’s now established the county qualified for the red tier a week earlier. She said there’s no need to challenge the state’s testing-based adjustment to the county’s data.
As communities lobby for changes to the coronavirus reopening plan, the state health department has added some flexibility to the rules demoting counties that fail to meet the tier criteria.
If a county’s case rate or test positivity falls into a more restrictive tier for two weeks, it’s no longer an automatic demotion to that tier status. The state will look for signs of improvement in the data for the past 10 days and may let the county stay in the less restrictive tier.
Stanislaus County could also ask for adjudication if the county stops meeting the red tier requirements. Counties remain in the tier while the adjudication claim is considered by the state. The process takes about a week.
Schools are eligible to reopen for grades 7-12
Schools in Stanislaus County are eligible to open for 7th to 12th grades this week because the county has stayed in the red tier for 14 days. The state’s coronavirus strategy does not require school closures if the county were to revert to purple within the next several weeks. The schools can stay open.
Even though they are allowed to reopen under state guidelines, school districts are not in a rush to open classrooms for older students in 7th to 12th grades
Krista Noonan, spokeswoman for Modesto City Schools, said the school board will discuss and take action on 7-12 grades reopening at its meeting Nov. 9. The district is still planning on Nov. 12 to begin a phased-in return to classroom instruction for transitional kindergarten to 2nd grades and reopening for 3rd to 6th grades Nov. 30.
“This was indicated in our reopening plan,” Noonan said. “We are also still in discussions with our labor organizations to reach agreements.”
Schools returning to in-person instruction are expected to comply with a host of state guidelines for safe distancing, cleaning and contagious disease prevention.
Ceres Unified School District is working on plans to reopen grades 7-12, but does not have a firm date yet, a spokesperson said. Elementary students will return on a hybrid schedule beginning Monday, starting with pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade. Grades 3-6 are set for Nov. 16.
Turlock Superintendent Dana Salles Trevethan said the district has a goal of returning junior high and high schoolers to classrooms beginning in November while following the health and safety protocols.
“We have already begun returning some students in small learning groups at the elementary level and plan to continue this practice for secondary (students) as well,” Trevethan said.
Oakdale Joint Unified School District will stay the course on a measured approach to reopening grade 7-12 schools and won’t rush to reopen simply because of tier assignments, Superintendent Marc Malone said.
Riverbank’s school district is proceeding with a current plan for elementary schools while working toward plans for secondary sites.
Waterford Superintendent Don Davis said the school district won’t immediately open 7th to 12 grade campuses simply because it’s allowed in the red tier. “The secondary level is complicated due to the amount of mixing of students that occurs as they go about their day changing classes,” Davis said.
“Even configuring a hybrid model with half the students on campus two days a week and the other half at home, mixing still occurs with those on campus,” he said.
Heath Thomason, superintendent of Paradise School District, said the small district is returning 7th and 8th graders next week on a hybrid model matching its K-6 model.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 12:19 PM.
