Monterey County officially reaches the less restrictive Orange Tier as of April 7.

Monterey County businesses and activities currently operating under Red Tier guidelines will officially open up more under the less restrictive Orange Tier starting tomorrow, April 7, according to the state’s Blueprint for a Healthy Economy website this morning and confirmed by the Monterey County Health Department.

Some of the reopenings include: restaurants may increase indoor seating to 50 percent or 200 people, whichever is lower; retail stores may open at 100-percent capacity; gyms and fitness centers may open indoors at 25-percent capacity with indoor pools open; movie theaters may open to 50 percent or a capacity of 200 people, whichever is lower; museums may open to 50-percent capacity.

It also means the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which announced last week it is reopening to the general public on May 15, will be able to open up to 50-percent capacity, instead of 25 percent under current Red Tier guidelines.

The state also announced today that it is eyeing June 15 as the possible date of lifting all restrictions on businesses, despite the fact that the pandemic continues with a possible fourth wave of Covid-19 impacting Michigan, New York and New England. The World Health Organization today announced cases globally rose for the sixth consecutive week with over 4 million new cases reported since last week.

Despite increases elsewhere, California’s cases actually decreased this past week, a 3.7-percent decrease over 14 days, according to the Los Angeles Times coronavirus tracker. Hospitalizations are also down.

Monterey County’s rate of new cases per 100,000 residents decreased from 4.4 cases last week to 3.5 in today’s state report. The overall test positivity rate also decreased from 2.1 percent to 1.5 percent. The test positivity rate in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Places Index decreased from 3.4 to 2.4.

The big change in California is the increased availability of vaccines which is fueling reopening efforts. The state set a goal for itself to flood vaccine supply to zip codes in the lowest quartile on the Healthy Places Index, the same areas where Covid-19 hit communities the hardest. If the state reached 4 million vaccinations in those zip codes, officials would change the case rate and testing thresholds that determine which tier assignment counties have.

In the last week, Monterey County received an additional 8,100 vaccines that are being administered this coming weekend at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas by appointment.

It’s those efforts that have helped the state reach its goal and now counties with scores previously in the Red Tier find themselves in Orange Tier because the metrics shifted. For example, Monterey County’s rate of 4.4 new cases per day per 100,000 people was in the Red Tier last week. This week, because of vaccines, the Red Tier threshold shifted to 6-10 new cases per day per 100,000 people.

The state’s case rate report is based on case numbers from 10 days previously—today’s report is based on numbers from March 27. Since that date, Monterey has seen an increase of 148 new cases. A big unknown is how the county will fare seven to 14 days after Easter, when people may have gathered, increasing the risk of transmission.