After weeks at the cusp of the least-restrictive stage of California’s COVID-19 restrictions, San Francisco will become the first county in the Bay Area to reach the state’s yellow reopening tier this week.
And in a testament to how dramatically infection levels have declined in the state, Los Angeles County — which became a national epicenter for the pandemic during a horrific surge last winter — is also moving into the tier that indicates “minimal” coronavirus spread.
The counties learned late Tuesday morning that they would be advancing in the color-coded reopening system.
Marin County, which was eligible to move up to the yellow tier this week, did not make the cut after its case rate ticked up slightly. Trinity County in the state’s far north joined San Francisco and Los Angeles in advancing.
The stage’s looser restrictions will take effect later this week: Indoor bars that don’t offer food service will be allowed to reopen at limited capacity, outdoor gatherings of up to 100 people will be allowed and indoor businesses such as gyms and bowling alleys will have higher capacities, among other changes.
“This is an incredible milestone for us to hit as we move forward on our path to recovery,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in a statement Tuesday. “The yellow tier means that no longer are there any businesses that are required to keep their doors shut in this city, and it means we are continuing to allow more activities to be done safely with more people.
Two more Bay Area counties, San Mateo and Sonoma, could follow San Francisco into the yellow tier as soon as next week. Data posted by the state Tuesday afternoon showed those counties had case rates low enough to reach the yellow tier; if those figures stay in that range for a second week, the counties will advance.
Case rates in four other Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa and Santa Clara — fell into the orange, or “moderate,” range, meaning they’ll stay in that tier for at least the next two weeks.
Solano County, the last of the region’s nine counties still in the more-restrictive red tier, is also staying put because its case rates remain too high for the orange tier.
Marin and other Bay Area counties have over the past month flirted with the yellow tier, which requires an adjusted case rate of less than 2 cases per 100,000 residents per day.
Seven counties statewide, which are combined home to more than 11 million people, have now reached the yellow tier. About 60% of California’s residents and 39 of its 58 counties are classified in the orange stage, while 12 counties are in the red; none are in the most-restrictive purple tier.
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