Napa County Moves To Purple Tier

NAPA COUNTY, CA — Napa County was among 28 California counties moved Monday to the state's Purple Tier, the state's most restrictive of tiers on its "Blueprint for a Safer Economy."

State officials said the move was in response to a recent, unprecedented surge in cases — the fastest the state of California has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. The state made several changes to tier assignments on its "Blueprint for a Safer Economy" framework in order to expedite movement of counties into more restrictive tiers.

Napa County confirmed it has been assigned to the Purple Tier because of a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases over the last three weeks.

"Transition to the Purple Tier must be implemented by the start of business on Wednesday, November 18, 2020," the county said.

Previously, Napa County was in the Orange Tier for several weeks.

"A return to the Purple Tier severely impacts local businesses that will now have to close indoor operations or reduce business capacity," Napa County Office of Emergency Services said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been 2,521 total coronavirus cases in Napa County. There were 617 active cases as of Monday, including 89 new cases.

The virus has been responsible for 17 deaths in Napa County.

The nearby counties of Solano and Contra Costa were also moved Monday to the Purple Tier. Sonoma County remains in the Purple Tier, while Marin County was reassigned to the Red Tier.

According to a news release Monday from the Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, there are now 41 counties in Tier 1 (Purple/Widespread) with the addition Monday of the 28 counties listed below:

• Alameda
• Napa
• Santa Cruz
• Butte
• Nevada
• Siskiyou
• Contra Costa
• Orange
• Solano
• El Dorado
• Placer
• Sutter
• Fresno
• San Benito
• Trinity
• Glenn
• San Joaquin
• Tuolumne
• Kern
• San Luis Obispo
• Ventura
• Kings
• Mendocino
• Merced
• Santa Barbara
• Santa Clara
• Yolo
• Yuba

The list of nine counties below moved back into Tier 2 (Red/Substantial):

• Colusa
• Marin
• Plumas
• Del Norte
• Modoc
• San Francisco
• Humboldt
• Mono
• San Mateo

Two counties moved back into Tier 3 (Orange/Moderate):

• Calaveras
• Sierra