This is how you can help Stanislaus restaurants, churches and more reopen faster

Yay for us.

We finally went from purple to red.

Life isn’t back to pre-COVID normal — it may never be — but we’re making progress here in Stanislaus County. The embarrassment we endured before when looking at the color-coded coronavirus map is easing.

You know the map, with colors assigned to each California county representing the virus’ threat level. For a while, Stanislaus stood out in the Central Valley like a hammer-smashed thumb, a purple spot entirely surrounded by luckier — or smarter — red and orange counties.

Purple, of course, designated our virus’ “widespread” status. Purple was a mark of shame, the worst of the worse, the lowest of the low.

Reasons for our failure have been cited on this opinion page for months. Mixed messaging from city and county leaders provided the moral excuse many sought to defy what experts had advised all along, particularly wearing a mask and keeping your distance in public.

Eventually, Stanislaus’ infection numbers dipped enough for the Tuesday announcement everyone had been waiting for, allowing us to slip from purple to red. Which means our threat level remains “substantial” as opposed to the more dire “widespread.”

Some immediately celebrated by finally dining inside a restaurant, if they could find a table; red

Now that we’re finally in the red — remember, that’s a good thing in this context — what must we do to stay there? Or even to progress to “moderate” orange status, which would allow 50% seating in restaurants?

Actually, there is something just about all of us can do: get tested.

First, the more testing we do, the easier it is to pinpoint the disease and stop it. That’s our main goal.

Second, our official positivity rate takes a hit in what is called an adjustment if not enough of us step forward to be tested. Low testing partly — albeit temporarily — kept us from progressing from purple to red, and could keep us from rising to orange — or could even put us back down into purple. No one wants that.

To help Stanislaus County, get a COVID test

So, if you want to do your part to help increase restaurant capacity, forget about whining at enforcement hearings of scofflaw restaurants wanting to escape following the same rules as all others, and instead get yourself tested.

If you want to do your part to help schools reopen for in-class instruction rather than distance learning, get yourself tested. If you want to increase capacity for gyms, stores, movie theaters, places of worship and more in Stanislaus County, get yourself tested.

Previously, we didn’t have unlimited testing materials or staff and public health officers said you should get tested only if you had COVID symptoms. Now, Stanislaus’ testing capacity can handle a bigger load, and the new advice includes getting tested if you’ve been around just about anyone outside your household. That means all of us, said Jody Hayes, Stanislaus CEO, in a telephone call.

“Proactive testing is a new way we can support our community,” Hayes said. “I view it as supporting our business community, schools and everything. Before, I don’t think we viewed testing as a support feature the average person can pitch in on. At this point, it’s clear that it is.”

See schsa.org/corona-virus/testing/ to schedule a quick, free, self-administered test in west Modesto, Salida or Turlock. Some pharmacies and commercial labs offer testing as well.