Updated: See the counties on California’s coronavirus watchlist – and 8 that have escaped

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to produce record high daily death tolls in California months after it began, the number of counties on the state’s COVID-19 “watchlist” decreased to 36 on Sunday, Aug. 23.

The list reached 42 counties since Monday, Aug. 17 when five counties — Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mendocino and Sierra were added. Since then, the list has shrunk by six.

Calaveras and Sierra’s stays on the watchlist were brief, as they exited monitoring later in the week. Six counties that had been on the list for several weeks have also left monitoring: Mono, Napa, Placer, Santa Cruz, San Diego and, most recently, Orange.

The California Department of Public Health places counties that exceed thresholds in disease transmission, hospitalization and hospital capacity for three consecutive days on its county monitoring llst, also known as the watchlist.

To avoid the list, counties must meet a number of criteria, including a case rate of fewer than 100 cases per 100,000 population over the past 14 days, a positive test rate less than 8% over the past seven days, a less than 10% increase in COVID hospitalizations over the past three days, and have more than 20% ICU beds available.

Counties on the watchlist for three consecutive days must close these facilities, unless they can be modified to operate outside or by pick-up:

• Gyms and fitness centers
• Places of worship and cultural ceremonies, such as weddings and funerals
• Offices for non-critical infrastructure sectors
• Personal care services, such as nail salons and body waxing
• Hair salons and barbershops
• Shopping malls

This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Updated: See the counties on California’s coronavirus watchlist – and 8 that have escaped."