Fresno County could be close to resuming indoor restaurant dining, worship services
A marked improvement in Fresno County’s coronavirus trends is putting the county on the cusp of being able to ease up on some of the business restrictions under the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.”
Under a new color-coded tier system that started at the end of August, Fresno has been in the “purple” tier denoting widespread risk of COVID-19 transmission, based on a combination of the rate of daily new cases and the rate of positive results from testing.
On Tuesday, updated calculations from the California Department of Public Health indicated that Fresno is oh-so-close to meeting the threshold to move out of the purple tier – the most restrictive of the four levels – and win promotion to the red tier, in which many retail business can increase the number of people who can be allowed in at any given time.
The red tier designates counties in which there is “substantial” risk of spreading the virus.
Under the guidelines, a county must have an average of fewer than seven new cases per day, and also have a testing positivity rate of 8% or less, to be moved from the purple tier to red. Fresno’s positivity rate on Tuesday was reported at 6.2%, well below that part of the threshold.
The new case rate, however, was 7.5 per 100,000 residents – tantalizingly close to, but in excess of, what’s needed to move into the next tier.
“I was excited about those numbers,” Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, said Tuesday. “But I do think we have to be cautious. … It’s just moving from purple to red, it’s not really getting out of the pandemic.”
“There is a lot of progress that we still need to make,” he added.
What could reopen if ...?
For weeks, after Fresno County landed on a state “watch list” of counties with rising numbers of coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations, numerous business sectors including restaurants and churches have been prohibited from indoor operations. Those would be among the most noticeable changes if, or when, Fresno County and its neighboring Valley counties can win reassignment from the purple tier to red.
Under the red tier, restaurants that have been limited to take-out or outdoor service would be allowed to resume indoor dining, but only up to 25% of their seating capacity. Churches would also be allowed to bring worship services indoors, up to 25% of their capacity or a maximum of 100 people, whichever is less.
Some other sectors would be able to resume limited indoor operations at reduced capacity, including gyms and fitness centers, movie theaters and cultural ceremonies.
Others, however, would still remain closed, including nightclubs, bars and taverns that don’t serve meals; indoor playgrounds; live theater venues; saunas and steam rooms; and others.
“Right now we’ve met one of the two metrics, and we just missed the other one by really a very small amount,” Vohra said Tuesday. “I’m hoping we get it next time. … Then the question becomes, would we ever go back to purple if things got worse? Or when we go to red, when are we going to go to orange?”
The state evaluates each county on a weekly basis, updating tier assignments each Tuesday. Under the guidelines published on the state’s website, “to move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks” before being reassigned.
That indicates that if Fresno County meets both thresholds in next week’s update, it would need to maintain those levels for two weeks before officially being reassigned to the red tier. “The day that we get into the red, then those things would be allowed,” Vohra said. “We’re just hoping that happens sooner rather than later.”
“A lot of sectors depend on us moving into the red tier in order to allow even 25% indoor services for things like indoor dining, worship services, and other activities,” he added.
A county would have to spend at least three weeks in the red tier before it could progress to the orange tier, denoting “moderate” risk for the spread of the virus. But if a county experiences a setback such as an increase in cases or a higher testing positivity rate, things could go into reverse.
“If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier,” according to the state’s website.
No exceptions for wildfire smoke
Vohra said that as smoke from wildfires around the state settles in the central San Joaquin Valley to create unhealthy air quality conditions for outdoor activities, Fresno County sought permission from the state last week to allow indoor dining.
“We asked the state if we could move dining indoors during this period of really excessive air quality issues and they said they’re unfortunately not able to allow that because the indoor dining is still considered so hazardous from the perspective of COVID in a county like ours,” Vohra told reporters Tuesday.
“We’re hoping to move into the red simply to be able to allow more indoor activities because we know that’s safer during this period of very hazardous air quality,” he added. “But we still all have to wait until the tier gets assigned to us to be able to do that.”
On Tuesday afternoon, several Fresno city and county leaders as well as restaurateurs signaled their intention to send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging the state to allow “limited, safe indoor dining” in Fresno County.
Fresno Mayor Lee Brand will be joined by Fresno City Councilmembers Luis Chavez and Mike Karbassi, Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes, and California Restaurant Association leaders Chuck Van Fleet, Lorraine Salazar and Mike Shirinian for a formal announcement of their letter Wednesday afternoon at Fresno City Hall.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 5:52 PM.
