Napa County reopens further in final week of California’s tiers system
Napa County will advance to the yellow tier (“minimal” risk) in the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, effective at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, California public health officials said Tuesday.
Given the state will fully reopen on June 15, Napa’s move from the orange tier (“moderate” risk) won’t be impactful for long, but is significant for now.
“This move increases business capacity in preparation for the lifting of the state’s Blueprint next week,” Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa’s public health officer, said in a statement. “It also serves as a good reminder for our residents to get vaccinated in order to protect themselves and others as restrictions are lifted.”
Under the yellow tier, restaurants, wineries, breweries and distilleries can open indoors with modifications up to 50% capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer. Retail stores, hotels, hair salons and barbershops can open indoors with modifications.
Napa County this week reported a new daily COVID-19 case rate of 1.9 per 100,000 residents, and a test positivity rate of 0.9%. In order to advance to the yellow tier, a county’s new daily case rate must be less than 2 per 100,000 residents for two consecutive weeks. The test positivity rate must be less than 2%.
Napa now joins Marin and Mendocino counties in the yellow tier, while the North Bay’s three additional counties — Sonoma, Solano and Lake — remain in the orange tier.
As California leaves behind the four-tiered structure for reopening it implemented on Aug. 31, businesses will be allowed to return to pre-pandemic operations. However, vaccination and negative test requirements will be in place through at least Oct. 1 for large-scale indoor events, according to the state’s public health department.
Five additional counties in the state also will advance tier levels on Wednesday. Alameda, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara will move from orange to yellow; and Stanislaus County will move from red (“substantial” risk) to orange. There are no counties in the purple tier, the most-restrictive category.
