Monterey County asked the California Department of Public Health on Wednesday, Nov. 4 to allow the county to drop out of the more restrictive Purple Tier of the state's Covid-19 reopening plan into the Red Tier.
The request is based on adjusted test positivity rates, Health Officer Edward Moreno told the Board of Supervisors.
The county could have an answer by Monday, Nov. 9. If approved—and if the numbers continue downward—it could mean only one more week in the Purple Tier before moving into the Red Tier, which would allow for more business openings.
It could mean indoor dining for up to 25-percent of capacity, indoor gyms of up to 10-percent capacity, climbing walls and greater capacity inside shopping malls, among others. Bars that do not serve food would remain closed. There's some good news for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which could reopen at 25-percent capacity.
Although total cases and hospitalizations in Monterey County have been trending downward, Moreno said, the Monterey County has remained in the Purple Tier due to case rates, which in the last report were 7.9 cases per 100,000 residents, above the state's limit of 7. The overall test positivity rate was 3.9 per 100,000 residents, which in the state's tiering system is even better than the Red Tier, and falls within the less-restrictive Orange Tier.
The sticking point for Monterey County was its test positivity rate according to the Healthy Places Index, part of the state's Health Equity Metric that requires the areas of the county with the highest case rates to come into line with the rest of the county. Monterey County's rate was at 5.1, which is in the Red Tier.
Monterey County Epidemiologist Kristy Michie discovered that there are some private labs that were not reporting results to the county in a way that would then get recorded by the state. She took those cases and added them to the state's formula and the rate fell below a rate of 5, Moreno told the supervisors.
County officials included the new data in an adjudication request, and they are now hoping for a favorable decision. If the CDPH rules in the county's favor, the county would get a one-week credit for being in the Red Tier, with one more week to before officially changing.
(2) comments
The restrictions are based on the most restrictive metric. You can’t choose the best one and pretend it’s ok. The cases per 100k are still widespread. All they want to do is move the goal posts so they can open up. Things aren’t better, they’re just caving to pressure. Which is fine, but it’s not at a lesser risk.
How could staffer's in Moreno's office have not looked at the very outset of test result data to see that all data was being properly integrated into the models? Every week of missed revenues from relaxed indoor dining standards is critical to a restaurant struggling to survive and keep people employed. This is outrageous.
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