“COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and we need to adapt,” Newsom said. “… We must deal with this reality and this fundamental truth until there is a vaccine, until we have the kind of therapeutics that could substantially mitigate the spread and the impact of COVID-19, that we will simply need to adapt our behaviors until that time.”
The change did not appear to have any immediate impact on businesses in Los Angeles County. The adjustment does allow barbershops and hair salons — which are currently restricted to outdoor operations — to reopen indoors with safety precautions starting Monday, but local health officials would have to sign off on that change first. Los Angeles County health officials said, however, the local health order “has not been changed to permit these reopenings.”
“As such, since county orders may be more restrictive than state guidance, all current restrictions remain in place until the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the Board of Supervisors have an opportunity to review the suggested guidance from the state and take actions that are appropriate for our county,” according to the county.
The four-tier system replaces the state’s coronavirus monitoring list, which was being used to gauge individual counties’ success in controlling the spread of COVID-19. Counties on the monitoring list — including Los Angeles County — were heavily restricted in terms of allowable business operations, while counties not on the list were given more leeway to reopen economic sectors and even schools.
Newsom called the new system a “more dynamic list that we hope is not only more dynamic but much more simple to understand.”
The monitoring list relied on six criteria — new case rates, positivity rates, testing capacity, hospitalization numbers and availability of intensive-care unit beds and ventilators.
The new system, however, relies on two metrics: the daily rate of new cases per 100,000 residents, and the seven-day average rate of positive tests. Based on those numbers, counties are filtered into one of four tiers:
— counties with more than seven new cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate of more than 8% are in the purple (“widespread”) category;
— counties with four to seven new cases per 100,000 and a positivity rate between 5% and 8% are in the red (“substantial”) category;
— counties with one to 3.9 new cases per 100,000 and a positivity rate from 2% to 4.9% are in the orange (“moderate”) category; and
— counties with less than one new case per 100,000 and a positivity rate less than 2% are in the yellow (“minimal”) category.
Of California’s 58 counties, 38 are now listed in the purple, or “widespread,” category, which Newsom equated to being on the previous monitoring list. Los Angeles County falls into the purple category.
As counties move down the list of risk categories, restrictions on business operations are slowly eased.
In conjunction with the switch, the state revised its website, covid19.ca.gov, on which people can enter their county and choose an economic sector. The website will then tell the user what category the county is in and provide information about what businesses are open and what types of restrictions they must adhere to.
John Evans says
Tired of communism yet? After all Newsom thinks the dumpster fire he’s created,(formerly known as California), is an independent country all it’s own. Must be since more children under 10 have died from abuse in LA County than have died from Covid-19 on the entire planet. Priorities! Viva La Revolucion! Screw business owners! Defund the police! Protect the Cartels! Ban intellect! Demean the nuclear family! Denounce God! Oh, and that 2 weeks to bend the curve thing…..yeah, Suckers!
Dave says
Do you have an undiagnosed mental illness? You really lay it on thick.
Move. Go to Alabama, South Carolina, Florida…anywhere but don’t stay here any longer.
Don’t worry. We’ll be fine without you. Very fine indeed.
You don’t seem to mind our president cozying up to a former KGB COMMUNIST and selling out our country and our intelligence community. So go. Far away.
Trumpist#1 says
You sound as delusional, untruthful and unpatriotic as Shifty Schiff. Those are blatant lies your side has been vomiting for 4 years. Nobody has found ANY evidence of what you falsely accuse Trump of.
You and Schiff have been lying about it all along. He said he saw evidence with his own eyes. Lying scum. You people have put the country thru hell and impeachment to score political points with a lie that has hurt our country at the very moment we needed to focus on COVID.
I call Demo-rats UNETHICAL LIARS that hate our country.
MAGA/KAG/TRUMP 2024
John Evans says
Dave, you won’t address reality. And perhaps you might add Nevada, Idaho, Texas, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Iowa, Georgia. After all tens of thousands of businesses already have, including Tesla and Toyota. But you don’t know that, do you. “In order to continue advancing their illogical arguments modern liberals have to pretend not to know things”. – David Mamet (American playwright). So Dave, you’re being lied to, you know it and you like it.
Dave says
John Evans. Your rant shows just who you are.
Move, whydontcha?
And, you ARE FINE with Trump kissing Putin’s a$$.
You don’t mind being lied to over 20,000 times by Trump do ya?
THAT’S the reality that you are avoiding.
California’s economy is the biggest in the country and 6th in the world. California has big shoulders but you are a small man so you belong elsewhere.
Dave says
John Evan doesn’t mind the 20,000+ lies of Trump or the LIEAPALOOZA that was he Republican Convention. Just about every speaker lied. Fact checkers were busy.
I posted a few under Readers Speak Out but Evans deliberately avoided reading them.
That’s all. you need to know about John Evans.
John Evans says
Dave, 25% of Californians live below the poverty level, that’s 1 in 4 Dave. Dave 400,000 fewer people in California have a job today than at this time last year. The tax base is shrinking and unemployment is nearing 20%. So what gated community do you live in, (otherwise known as under a rock). You sound like an ignorant public employee. Democrat social policy kills and you’re it’s cheerleader. Enjoy WalMart and Carl’s Jr. and your video game dreamland because they are now your reality. Kiss community goodbye. And as for Putin, that tired bile is so Adam Schiff. Funny, yet another lying venomous Democrat.
kelly says
Good, those are the smart business owners that used common sense and stayed open!
Tony says
Gavin Newsome: Just another in a long list of reasons why I moved out of CA!
tsparky says
If you think that hair salons and barbershops are not operating, you are delusional. All the women (and many men) are getting their hair done, either in the “closed” shop or at home. Just look at the salons that have paper over their windows. Oh yeah, it’s cash only.
Bob says
It should remain cash only…