Santa Clara County Moves Into Red Tier, Loosening Restrictions

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County has moved into the red tier in the state’s COVID-19 blueprint, loosening restrictions as daily case rates and hospitalizations have declined.

The county has been in the purple tier since the Bay Area exited the regional shelter-in-place order in late January. Starting Wednesday, the county will be largely aligned with the state's framework in allowing businesses to open under the red tier.

California allows counties in the red tier to reopen the following sectors with safety modifications in place:

• shopping centers (50 percent capacity; closed common areas and reduced-capacity food courts)
• indoor dining (25 percent capacity)
• fitness centers (10 percent capacity)
• places of worship (25 percent capacity or 100 people — whichever is fewer)
• nail salons
• massage facilities
• museums (25 percent capacity)
• zoos (25 percent capacity)
• aquariums (25 percent capacity)
• movie theaters (25 percent capacity or 100 people — whichever is fewer)

"We are coming out of a devastating winter surge that has claimed the lives of too many county residents," said Dr. Sara Cody, the county's public health officer, in a news briefing on Tuesday. "But we now find ourselves on firmer footing."

Cody added that in order to focus on ramping up vaccinations, the county will follow the state's framework.

"This is a significant change for us as we have traditionally kept local rules in place — some more strict, some less strict," Cody said.

For instance, the county's mandatory travel directive — where those entering the county from more than 150 miles away had to quarantine for 10 days — is no longer in effect.

But Cody stressed that while residents can relax "a little," it is important to understand that "just because the state’s framework may allow an activity, it does not mean that it is safe" — for instance, an elderly person who has not been vaccinated should not be at an indoor gathering with other unmasked individuals outside of their household.

County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said that the light at the end of the tunnel is now visible.

"Today feels like a beautiful spring day, though we are just barely into March, and we all remember what last March felt like," Ellenberg said. "It may be March again, but this is not the same March that we experienced in 2020."

Six other counties also moved into the red tier on Tuesday because they were able to show a reduced positivity rate between 5-8 percent for two weeks in a row.

The state also announced a 2.6 percent positivity rate over a two-week period Tuesday.

"Only 7 other states have a lower positivity rate than we do," California Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted on Tuesday.

No new counties moved back into a more restrictive tier, showing clear progress for the state, which has already come a long way from a devastating winter surge. But 40 counties still remained in the purple tier.

Sixteen counties now sit in the red tier, with two counties in the orange, moderate tier.

The state reported just 2,533 new cases of the virus on Tuesday, adding to a total of 3,481,611 confirmed cases to date. On Monday, the state had reported nearly a thousand more cases.

"Things are moving in the right direction, things seem to be stabilizing," Newsom said at a news conference on Monday. "We're seeing vaccinations increase, we're seeing the positivity in case rates decrease."

But Newsom also warned of a "plateau."

"One needs to be mindful of that," he said Monday.

Kat Schuster contributed to this article.