California Wine Country counties aim for the next tier of coronavirus reopening

Given its daily number of new COVID-19 cases are dropping, Napa County has been hoping it might get closer to the state’s orange tier, and less restrictions.

Not yet, but soon.

On Oct. 13, California reported that Napa County had a state-adjusted rate of three new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days, keeping it in the red tier for now.

The red tier reflects a state classification of “substantial” COVID-19 transmission. A county must have less than four cases for two weeks straight to move into the orange category or, in the state’s point of view, “moderate” transmission.

If its metrics remain in the orange tier come Oct. 20, it will officially move to that category the following day, on Oct. 21. The county’s test positivity rate as of Oct. 13 was 1.6%.

Counties in the red tier have fewer constraints on businesses than the purple tier, the most restricted for having “widespread” transmission. Counties in red may open a variety of indoor businesses, albeit with limited capacity, including restaurants, hotels, museums, gyms, and personal care services, such as nail salons and message shops.

But orange is even better. It not only allows indoor businesses more capacity, it also lets winery tasting rooms move back indoors.

Napa County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Relucio told the Business Journal on Sept. 29 that she was cautiously optimistic the county would soon qualify for the orange tier.

“We’re close. We have to have a daily case rate of less than four for two weeks consecutively to move us into the orange tier,” Relucio said, noting that as of Sept. 21, the county’s daily case rate was 4.3. “We had a few days where we had less than 10 cases a day, but we’ve had other days where we’ve had more than 10 cases a day, so I think it’s a matter of keeping an eye on that and not becoming complacent.”

Napa County was initially placed into the red tier when California on Aug. 31 rolled out its four-tiered, color-coded rating system that gives the state — not its individual 58 counties — control over monitoring the spread of COVID-19.

While Napa County is in a holding pattern, neighboring Sonoma County remains where it began, in the purple tier, the most restrictive category.

As of Oct. 13, the county had a virus transmission rate of 10.6 new daily cases per 100,000, falling short of the threshold to qualify for advancement under state guidelines. To qualify, the rate must be 8 or fewer new daily cases per 100,000 people.

Sonoma County’s two test positivity levels are 5% for the county overall and 7.5% for disadvantaged residents in local communities. The latter is known as the health equity metric, a third benchmark the state put into place Oct. 6, applicable to counties with populations greater than 106,000.

In order for a county to move to a less-restrictive tier, its disadvantaged communities have to come within 5% of the overall test positivity rate required for that tier.

Both Napa and Marin counties had met the required health equity rate as of Oct. 6. Marin’s health equity metric as of Oct. 13 was 2.7%; Napa’s was 2.1%.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Latinos in Sonoma County have been hit harder than other racial or ethnic groups by the coronavirus pandemic, though local health officials have had some success reducing COVID-19 disparities, the outlet reported.

In early summer, Latinos accounted for as much as 77% of all COVID-19 cases, though they only comprise about a quarter of the county’s population. Latinos now comprise 54% of cases, according to the latest county public health data.

Marin County, however, has its proverbial eye on moving ahead to the orange tier within weeks. As of Oct. 13, its adjusted daily case rate was four, with 1.5% test positivity.

“We’ve been having similar case rates now for about the past three weeks,” Dr. Matt Willis told the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 13. “Our challenge is to continue to drive that downward.”

On Sept. 15, Marin County moved from the purple tier, where it started, to the red tier. That move had been anticipated to happen earlier. On Sept. 4, the county, in consultation with the California Department of Public Health, announced plans to move to the red tier, according to the county’s website. But on Sept. 7, CDPH notified the county its status would not change.

The county appealed and on Sept. 15 won after state data was reanalyzed. It was moved into the red tier the same day.

The San Francisco Chronicle, Napa Valley Register and Marin Independent Journal contributed to this report.