California demotes Fresno County back to purple-tier COVID-19 business restrictions
Fresno, Merced and Kings counties have been demoted into a more restrictive tier for business reopenings under California’s program to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The three counties are now part of purple Tier 1 in the state’s color-coded “Blueprint for a Safer Economy.” The purple tier represents “widespread” risk of spreading COVID-19 in the community. All three counties had been in red Tier 2, representing “substantial” risk.
The backslide into the more restrictive tier means that restaurants, churches, gyms and other business sectors that had been allowed to reopen indoors with limited capacity will now have to return to outdoor-only operations – and to do so by Tuesday.
The state Department of Public Health, which typically announces its tier assignments under its “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” on Tuesdays, instead posted the data on Monday on its website. As California deals with “an unprecedented surge” in the rate of new cases per day among the state’s population and its counties, the tier assignments are now subject to happening on any day of the week, and could also happen more than once a week.
The daily new-case rates for COVID-19 have doubled across California over the last 10 days, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Monday press conference. Newsom added that he is also considering the feasibility of issuing curfews and is reviewing several studies.
Under red Tier 2, restaurants have been able to offer limited indoor dining at up to 25% capacity. Similarly, churches could hold indoor services at up to the lesser of 25% capacity or 100 people, and fitness clubs could allow indoor workouts at up to 10% of their capacity.
Tulare and Madera counties remained in the purple tier, as they have since the color-coded system was launched in late August. Among central San Joaquin Valley counties, only Mariposa is outside of Tier 1. The mountain county remains in yellow Tier 4, the least restrictive tier denoting “minimal” risk of spreading the virus.
Tier threshold
There are two key metrics that determine where a county lands in the tier system: the one-week average rate of new cases each day per 100,000 residents, and the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 within a week whose results come back positive for the virus.
Last week, Fresno, Kings and Merced counties all exceeded the threshold of 7.0 new daily cases per 100,000 residents needed to stay out of the purple tier. Counties are demoted when they miss the mark for two consecutive weeks. Monday’s tier assignments are based on information for the week ending Nov. 10.
But based on the rate at which new cases are being identified since that date, the backslide into purple Tier 1 would reimpose limitations on a wide range of indoor businesses and activities that could remain in place for weeks.
For the week ending Nov. 10, Fresno County’s rate of new cases per day was calculated by the state at 13.9 per 100,000 residents – well above the 7.0-case threshold to remain in red Tier 2. In last week’s tier announcement, the rate in Fresno County was 8.3 cases per 100,000 residents.
Kings County’s new-case rate per 100,000 residents rose from 8.4 last week to 12.9 this week.
In Merced County, the rate increased from 12.8 last week to 16.1.
Fresno, Kings and Merced counties are part of a wholesale reassignment of 29 counties back into purple Tier 1, including some that were moved back more than one level from orange Tier 3 – “moderate” risk of transmission” – into the most restrictive tier. Of California’s 58 counties, 41 are now in the throes of the purple tier.
Restrictions begin Tuesday
In prior weeks, counties that learned on a Tuesday that they were moving backward on the tier system had until the end of the week to activate plans to increase restrictions. On Monday, the state said, “in light of the extreme circumstances requiring immediate action, counties will be required to implement any sector changes the day following the tier announcement.”
That means the affected counties in the purple tier have to require restaurants, houses of worship and other affected sectors must return to outdoor-only operations by Tuesday.
That’s a big problem for restaurant owners who anticipated that Fresno County would be demoted to purple on Tuesday and that they could remain open for indoor dining until Friday, said Chuck Van Fleet, owner of Vino Grill and Spirits and president of the Fresno chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
“We were all prepared for it to happen on Friday, but this really kind of screwed us up,” Van Fleet said Monday. “A lot of restaurants do their food orders on Sunday for Monday delivery, so people already spent a lot of money on food expecting that we were going to be open until Friday, but now we’ll be closing (Tuesday).”
“This has really created a lot of cost. Restaurants will go from a whole bunch of people that can come in and sit inside and outside, and then you cut your seating capacity down by half or more” by limiting service to outdoor dining, Van Fleet added. ”And you’ve got a lot of places that don’t have patios at all, and they ordered food through the weekend and they have to close tomorrow (Tuesday).”
Van Fleet said the situation is aggravated further by inaction in Congress on a new stimulus package to help struggling businesses. Earlier this year, the Paycheck Protection Program provided emergency funds for businesses to stay afloat and keep employees on their payroll. “But that was only meant to be a short-term fix for a few months,” Van Fleet said. “We’ve been going from March through now and we’ve all run out of that PPP money.”
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate “can’t agree on a new stimulus package for restaurants,” he added. “They’ve run through the election and not even worried about the people who are trying to stay alive.”
Around the Valley
A recent surge of new coronavirus cases in Fresno County and the central San Joaquin Valley showed little indication of slowing over this past weekend. More than 800 new infections were reported since Friday in Fresno County, and nearly 1,500 across the six-county region.
On Monday, the California Department of Public Health reported 328 new cases for Fresno County. That’s on top of 234 on Saturday and 276 on Sunday. Monday’s update is the largest one-day increase in reported cases in Fresno County in more than two months.
Since the first local case of COVID-19 was confirmed in early March, more than 34,000 people in Fresno County have at some point tested positive for the virus. Those cases include 460 deaths blamed on the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
Also on Monday, Tulare County reported more than 150 new cases, pushing the county beyond a cumulative 19,000 confirmed infections, including 300 deaths, in the pandemic. A spate of new cases in Kings County boosted that county to more than 9,600 to date, including 87 deaths.
Monday’s daily case updates from Valley counties included:
Fresno County: 328 new cases reported by the state Department of Public Health on Monday, 838 since Friday, and a total of 34,297 since early March. The county only provides updates on deaths on Tuesdays and Fridays. As of Nov. 13, 460 people have died from COVID-19.
Kings County: 86 new cases Monday, 229 since Friday, and 9,601 to date. No additional deaths, 87 to date. More than 4,500 of Kings County’s cases are among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 88 cases since Friday, 5,514 to date; no additional deaths, 76 to date.
Merced County: 178 new cases since Friday, 10,552 to date; three additional deaths, 172 to date.
Mariposa County: Two new cases since Friday, 91 to date. No additional deaths, two to date.
Tulare County: 158 new cases since Friday, 19,054 to date; no additional deaths, 300 to date.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 12:34 PM.
