CALIFORNIA’S new color-coded Covid system is part of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
The four tiers are purple, red, orange and yellow.
What counties are in the purple tier?
Purple represents counties with widespread Covid-19, red reflect areas with a substantial number of cases, orange is the moderate tier, and yellow reflect areas with a minimal number of cases.
Purple, or Tier 1, indicates that coronavirus is widespread in the county – with more than seven cases per 100,000, or more than eight per cent of test results reported positive over seven days.
It means around 94 per cent of Californians — roughly 37 million people — will live in counties that are in the strictest tier of Cali’s roadmap to reopening.
These counties include:
- Siskiyou
- Shasta
- Trinity
- Tehama
- Mendocino
- Glenn
- Butte
- Nevada
- Yuba
- Sutter
- Sonama
- Napa
- Yolo
- Placer
- Sacramento
- El Dorado
- Solano
- Contra Costa
- San Joaquin
- Stanislaus
- Alameda
- Tuolumne
- Santa Clara
- Santa Cruz
- Merced
- San Benito
- Monterey
- Fresno
- Madera
- Tulare
- Kings
- San Luis Obispo
- Kern
- San Bernadino
- Vern
- Los Angeles
- Santa Barbara
- Ventura
- Riverside
- San Diego
- Orange
- Imperial
No public or private schools in counties rated purple can open for in-person teaching.
Church services must take place outdoors as there is a ban on indoor worship.
All retail remains open but shops can only operate at 25 per cent of their normal capacity.
Shopping malls also remain open but capacity is restricted to 25 per cent and food courts are closed.
Restaurants that serve food outdoors are permitted to remain open but bars and pubs are shut.
Remote working is recommended under the purple tier restrictions.
Professional sports can continue but these must take place behind closed doors.
How many counties are not in the purple tier?
There are 17 counties that aren’t in the purple tier.
Under the yellow tier, restaurants can operate indoors at 50 per cent of their capacity, as can movie theatres, bars, and places of worship.
Yellow tiers include Alpine and Mariposa.
Under Tier 4, large amusement parks would also be allowed to open at 25 per cent of their normal capacity.
Calaveras, Sierra, Lassen and Inyo will remain orange.
Del Norte, Modoc, Humboldt, Colusa, Lake, Plumas, Marin, Amador, San Mateo, San Francisco and Mono county are all red.
Why is the purple tier in place?
Governor Newsom said he was pulling the “emergency brake” on November 16 in an attempt to curb rising infection rates.
The statewide curfew applies to non-essential workers and gatherings in purple-tier counties and will remain in effect until December 21 at 5am.
He said: “We are sounding the alarm. California is experiencing the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet – faster than what we experienced at the outset of the pandemic or even this summer.
“The spread of Covid-19, if left unchecked, could quickly overwhelm our healthcare system and lead to catastrophic outcomes.”
