Sacramento enters orange COVID tier after months in red. What it means for businesses
About nine months after California’s tier framework was introduced and just two weeks before its planned end, Sacramento County has advanced into the orange level of COVID-19 restrictions for the first time ever, thanks to improving infection numbers.
The county had a long road to recovery after the statewide winter surge of infections that lasted most of December and January. Sacramento’s case rate plateaued in red-tier levels from late February through May, local and state health data show.
The promotion came due to the California Department of Public Health recording Sacramento’s daily case rate below six per 100,000 for a second straight weekly update Tuesday.
The local rate was 5.5 per 100,000 last week and 4.4 in Tuesday’s assessment, according to CDPH. At its worst point, in early December, the case rate peaked at nearly 65 per 100,000, local data show.
The looser orange restrictions mean restaurants, movie theaters and churches can now open at 50% indoor capacity, up from 25% in the red tier. Bars, breweries and distilleries that do not serve meals, shuttered indoors in Sacramento County for the vast majority of the pandemic, can open indoors and outdoors at 25% capacity.
Gyms and fitness centers can increase indoor capacity to 35% or more with proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
Family entertainment centers and venues like bowling alleys can open at up to 25% — or up to 50% at establishments requiring negative tests or proof of vaccination from guests.
Venues for live events such as concerts can also expand capacity up to varying percentages depending on their size, whether they require proof of vaccination and/or negative tests for attendees and whether they are indoor or outdoor.
More details on orange-tier capacity limits at live events and restrictions for other various types of establishments can be found on the CDPH webpage for the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Changes resulting from Tuesday’s tier changes officially take effect Wednesday. Sacramento County on Tuesday issued an updated health order to reflect the new tier level. The county said in a statement the new order will expire at 12:01 a.m. on June 15.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health leaders recently reaffirmed June 15 as the end date to the four-tier system along with most business and activity restrictions in California, meaning there will be just one more weekly tier list update next week.
The Tuesday after that, California will almost fully reopen its economy, with a few limited exceptions mainly concerning what the state calls “mega events” — those with 5,000 or more people indoors or 10,000 or more outdoors.
Sacramento County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye has said repeatedly the county will follow the state’s lead on COVID-19 health orders, and, absent a major resurgence centered locally, does not plan to impose any restrictions more stringent than the state’s beyond June 15.
“It is still important for Sacramento County to reach this lower tier before June 15, which signifies there is lower risk of spreading COVID-19 in the community and will increase capacity that much earlier for businesses,” Kasirye said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
Sacramento found itself among the last eight counties still in the red tier out of the state’s 58 counties. The remaining 50 entering this week were split between the orange and yellow tiers; none have been in the strictest tier, purple, since early April.
The slow progress exiting the red tier may have been at least in part due to local struggles in the vaccination campaign. Sacramento County has consistently trailed the statewide vaccination rate by several percentage points since COVID-19 vaccines first rolled out in mid-December.
CDPH on Tuesday reported 55% of all Californians have been at least partially vaccinated, with 44% of the population fully vaccinated. Among Sacramento County residents, the rates were 48% at least partially vaccinated and 39% fully vaccinated.
To date, Sacramento County health officials have reported more than 106,000 lab-confirmed cases and at least 1,709 COVID-19 deaths in the county of nearly 1.6 million people.
State health officials reported Tuesday that there were 69 confirmed virus patients in Sacramento County hospitals, after Monday’s reported total of 64 marked the county’s smallest tally of any day since late June 2020. At the county’s peak, the week of Christmas, nearly 520 were hospitalized at once.
With Tuesday’s promotion, the entire four-county capital region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo is in orange simultaneously for the first time.
For the six-county region made up of those four plus Sutter and Yuba counties, Sutter is in orange but Yuba remains one of four counties still in red.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 10:47 AM.
