San Diego County Falls Back To Most-Restrictive Coronavirus Tier

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA — With coronavirus case rates on the rise, San Diego County has fallen back to the most-restrictive tier of the state's COVID-19 tracking system. Therefore, indoor restaurants will have to move to outdoor service only, retail businesses will have to further limit capacity, and schools will be unable to shift to in-person learning.

The purple tier is the most-restrictive tier in the state's four-tiered, color-coded risk system and indicates a widespread COVID-19 risk level. The county's demotion from the less-restrictive red tier, which indicates a substantial risk level, is the result of two weeks of case rates that exceeded the threshold of 7 per 100,000 residents.

In recent weeks, the San Diego region had an unadjusted rate well above the purple tier guidelines, but a significant effort to increase the volume of tests had allowed for an adjustment to bring it back to the red tier. Testing has decreased slightly, however, and case numbers are on the rise.

State officials reported Tuesday that the county had an unadjusted new daily case rate of 10.0 per 100,000. The adjusted case rate dropped to 8.9 per 100,000. Last week's unadjusted case rate was 8.7 per 100,000.

County health officials Tuesday reported 483 new COVID-19 cases and seven additional deaths, raising the region's totals to 61,053 cases and 915 deaths.

Indoor operations in locations such as restaurants, museums, places of worship, breweries and retail businesses will have to either close entirely, move to outdoor operations only or modify in other ways.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer, said retail operations, including indoor shopping centers, will be limited to 25 percent of building capacity, down from the current 50 percent. Schools, unless they have already restarted in-person learning, will be restricted to distance learning. K-12 schools already in session can stay open, Wooten said.

According to the state's reopening plan, a county has to report data exceeding a more restrictive tier's guidelines for two consecutive weeks before being moved to that tier. A county then has to be in that tier for a minimum of three weeks before it may move to a less restrictive tier.

Restrictions will go into effect Saturday morning. Businesses have three days to adjust to the new restrictions.

This is a breaking news story. This story will be updated.

City News Service and Patch editor Kristina Houck contributed to this report.