More coronavirus-related restrictions are likely coming to Solano County, officials there said Monday, as the county’s infection rate now exceeds the threshold for the purple reopening tier under the state’s guidelines.
According to an update on the county health department website, the county’s case rate for the week of Nov. 10 was 11.3 per 100,000 residents, well above the 7.0/100K maximum to avoid the most restrictive reopening tier. With one more week above the threshold, a swath of businesses will be forced to shut down or scale back indoor operations as soon as Nov. 24, the county says.
Currently restaurants, movie theaters and places of worship are allowed to operate at 25% capacity, and gyms are permitted to have 10% of their maximum occupancy. If the purple restrictions were to take effect, all those industries would have to move outdoors. Retail, which is currently open at half capacity, would have to curtail to 25%.
A number of Bay Area counties have made proactive closures in the past week, hoping to curb rising case rates and avoid being reassigned to a more restrictive tier. San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties announced indoor dining closures. Solano County remained open under red-tier restrictions, where it has been for the past month.
If Solano County were reassigned to the purple tier, it would join Sonoma County as the only jurisdictions in the Bay Area under the most severe restrictions from the state. Officials across the region have expressed concern about rising case rates and the possibility of moving backward in the tier system.
If a county falls backward, it is stuck under the more restrictive guidelines for a minimum of three weeks. To move forward, it must meet the next tier’s thresholds for two consecutive weeks.
