Fresno is back in purple COVID-19 tier. Here’s what’s still open, what’s closed again
On the heels of Monday’s abrupt backward shift of Fresno County and many other California counties into the most restrictive level of the state’s coronavirus reopening program, there may be some confusion about what kinds of businesses can remain open, which ones are closed, and which ones have to modify their operations to comply with the more stringent limitations.
The California Department of Public Health rolled Fresno, Kings, and Merced counties – along with 23 other counties – into purple Tier 1 of the state’s color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Each tier represents a particular assessment of risk for transmitting COVID-19 in the community. The three Valley counties had been in the less restrictive red Tier 2 for several weeks in which a wider array of businesses were allowed to reopen or expand indoor operations.
The state’s tier system is comprised of:
- Purple Tier 1 – “widespread” risk of spread in counties with an adjusted rate of new daily cases of more than seven per 100,000 residents over the course of a week or more than 8% of residents who test for the virus showing positive results. After Monday, 41 counties fell in this category.
- Red Tier 2 – “substantial” risk of spread in counties with a rate of four to seven new daily cases per 100,000 and a testing positivity rate between 5% and 8%. Eleven counties are in this range now.
- Orange Tier 3 – “moderate” risk of viral spread in counties in which the daily new-case rate is between one and four per 100,000 residents and a testing positivity rate between 2% and 5%. Four counties are currently in this tier.
- Yellow Tier 4 – “minimal” risk of spreading the virus in counties with a daily new-case rate under one per 100,000, and testing positivity of less than 2%. Only two California counties, Mariposa and Alpine, remain in this least-restrictive tier.
Restaurants and churches are the sectors in which residents are likely to notice the most significant changes. Since late September, when Fresno County was promoted into red Tier 2, restaurants that had previously been limited to take-out, delivery, or outdoor dining were allowed to resume indoor dining at up to 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever was fewer.
Similarly, churches, temples, and other houses of worship could resume indoor services at up to 25% capacity or 100 people, after previously being limited to outdoor-only operations.
Under purple Tier 1, those outdoor-only limitations are back in place, just as they are for gyms and fitness centers. In the red tier, fitness clubs were able to open indoors at up to 10% capacity.
Can we go shopping in Fresno County with COVID-19 restrictions?
Operations at grocery stores remain open in the shift from the red tier to purple, with a limitation of 50% capacity. Modifications to pre-pandemic operations in any of the tier levels include requirements for staff and customers to wear face coverings, ensuring adequate social distancing, and frequent hand washing.
Farmers markets can remain open with safety modifications.
Other retailers can still be open under the purple tier, but with limitations on capacity. Indoor operations are allowed at up to 25% capacity in addition to masking and safety modifications. That’s a reduction from 50% capacity under red Tier 2. The retail sector includes bookstores, clothing and shoe stores, convenience stores, florists, home furnishing stores, jewelers, libraries, sporting goods stores, toy stores, and more.
Shopping centers, including malls, regional retail centers, and swap meets, also have a purple-tier limitation of 25% capacity for indoor operations and required masking and distancing modifications. Additionally, common areas, including food courts, are closed. Under red Tier 2, customers were allowed at a maximum of 50% capacity, and food courts could be open under the same limitations as restaurants at 25% capacity.
Can I get my hair done in Fresno County under COVID-19 purple Tier?
The downshift from the red tier into purple does not affect hair salons and barbershops, which for most of the summer were ordered closed to reduce the potential for spreading the virus. After the tier system was introduced in late August, the state modified its guidance to allow both hair salons and barbers to reopen indoors with modifications to their operations to include precautions for face coverings, social distancing, and frequent hand washing.
Other types of personal-care services, including body waxing studios and nail salons, are also allowed to remain open in the purple tier under modifications to the tier guidelines adopted by the state in October. That also applies to other hands-on face or body services, including tattoo, piercing, and other body-art services, massage therapy, and esthetics such as facials, skincare, and electrolysis — all with the same personal safety measures of masking, social distance, and hand hygiene.
What’s open outside under California’s coronavirus restrictions?
Restaurants, churches and gyms aren’t the only sectors limited to outdoor-only operations under the purple tier. Also barred from opening indoors are recreational businesses such as museums and zoos, movie theaters, and family fun and entertainment centers such as kart racing, miniature golf or batting cages.
Outdoor playgrounds and recreation facilities are also allowed to be open with safety modifications.
More adult-oriented recreation including wineries, cardrooms and satellite wagering are also limited to outdoor operations, as they were under the red tier.
What’s closed altogether?
Bars, breweries and distilleries at which meals are not served are closed, just as they were under the red tier. The same thing goes for amusement parks, concert venues, nightclubs, live theater, festivals, convention centers, indoor playgrounds such as bounce centers, ball pits or laser tag.
Saunas and steam rooms are also closed.
Offices in non-essential sectors are expected to be closed and employees working remotely – no change from what the red-tier rules were.
Other offices, including government agencies, banks and credit unions, among others, can be open, but with the appropriate safety measures.
What about schools?
Under the red tier, schools were allowed to reopen for in-person instruction – something that wasn’t allowed when Fresno County was previously in the purple tier unless a school was granted a waiver.
Now that Fresno County is back in the purple tier, schools that have already reopened can remain open. But schools that had not yet resumed in-person classes before Monday’s tier reassignment, they won’t be allowed to open until Fresno County returns into the red tier — and stays there for 14 days.
Elementary schools can also apply for a waiver from the county and state to reopen even in the purple tier.
In the purple tier, colleges are closed for indoor lectures and student gatherings. Some indoor classes, however, such as lab classes or studio carts, can still be conducted in person.
Can I get together with friends?
For the upcoming holidays and other social gatherings, the state’s guidelines — no matter what color tier a county is in — may be something of a party-pooper.
Small private gatherings are only allowed outdoors, with face covering and social distancing in place. No more than three households – including that of the host – are allowed, and gatherings or parties should be limited to less than two hours.
Singing, shouting, chanting, cheering or exercising — all activities that make people breathe harder and shoot more respiratory droplets into the air around them — are discouraged.
Anyone with symptoms of coronavirus disease — including cough or fever, breathing difficulty, muscle ache, fatigue, sore throat, runny nose, or flu symptoms like nausea, vomiting or diarrhea — are not allowed to attend. People at greater risk of serious illness, including the elderly or people with underlying conditions such as heart disease, lung disease or diabetes, should not attend.
When could Fresno emerge from the purple Tier?
Under the state’s blueprint, Fresno County would have to remain in the purple tier for three weeks before it can advance back into the red tier. But to do so, it would have to meet the red-tier requirements for at least two weeks: getting the daily new-case rate back to fewer than seven per 100,000, and maintaining a testing positivity rate of 8% or less.
It could be weeks before those numbers come back down, based on recent case trends in the county. Over the past week, Fresno County has averaged more than 260 new cases each day.
That amounts to a seven-day average of more than 25 cases per 100,000 residents, before allowing for cases in prisons and others that are excluded for the state’s tier assignments.
Additionally, to move forward in the tiers, Fresno County must also meet a “health equity” metric designed to measure whether low-income or disadvantaged neighborhoods are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic. To return to red, the testing positivity rate in census tracts that fall within the bottom 25% of income or socioeconomic measures in the county cannot exceed 8%.
In the state’s most recent calculation of the health equity score on Nov. 10, Fresno County was measured at 8.3% – three-tenths of a percentage point above the threshold.
