SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday revealed a new plan to battle the coronavirus pandemic in California.
California is completely revamping its reopening strategy amid the pandemic. The governor announced some businesses can reopen for indoor business across the state.
“COVID-19 will be here for a long time and we need to adapt,” Gov. Newsom said.
Moving away from its community spread watch list system, the state will now use a four-tiered color coded system — from purple representing counties with widespread COVID-19 transmission rates, to red for substantial, orange for moderate and yellow for minimal.
The tiers are based on COVID19 positivity and case rates.
Under the color-coded tiers, one’s county determines operations.
Newsom said this tier system will replace the previous county monitoring list.
Counties that start in higher tiers have met that tier’s criteria for two weeks.
Additionally, Newsom said there will be an additional requirement on commitment to health equity, in terms of testing and testing in targeted communities.
The first weekly assessment will be on Sept. 8.
Under the new system, there will be a 21-mandatory wait time before a county can move into a different tier or color.
That means the county must meet the metrics to be in the next tier for two straight weeks.
Counties can only move one tier at a time, and will be assessed weekly.
Counties can move back tiers if they fail to meet the current tier’s metrics for two straight weeks.
Additionally, there will be an update to the state’s COVID-19 website Friday.
The new website allows users to check if specific businesses are open or closed based on state restrictions.
Schools can also reopen in counties that have been in the red tier for two weeks.
Just over 1% of california’s population is in the orange and yellow tiers, which can open indoor operations at wineries, bars and cardrooms.. with the other businesses allowed to expand capacity.
“This is going to require us in this new framework in being statewide being stringent, and being slow,” CHHS Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said.
State health leaders say moving from tier to tier will be tough. Counties must wait at least 21 days before moving onto the next color. Businesses given the green light to reopen can do so as early as Monday.
Keep in mind that local county guidelines may be more stringent than the state’s. County guidelines trump state guidelines.
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