COVID: San Mateo could be first Bay Area county in orange tier
The move would allow bowling alleys and indoor cardrooms to reopen, and loosen capacity limits on indoor restaurants, museums, churches and movie theaters.
San Mateo County is expected to become the first in the Bay Area since the winter surge in COVID cases to reach the orange tier of California’s coronavirus reopening system on Tuesday, meaning residents would be subject to the second-loosest level of restrictions on businesses and activities.
Entering the “moderate” stage would allow bowling alleys and indoor cardrooms to reopen with capacity limits, same with outdoor operations at bars that don’t offer food service.
Indoor operations at restaurants, museums, churches and movie theaters would in most cases be allowed to have as much as to half of their usual capacity, up from the tighter restrictions mandated in the red, or “substantial risk,” tier. And wineries, breweries and distilleries would be allowed to start indoor service.
The rules continue to strongly discourage indoor gatherings, where the virus has a particularly easy time spreading, but would allow them with members of up to three households.
State officials will announce around noon Tuesday whether San Mateo County will advance, which it appears to be on track to do.
Data posted by the state last week showed the level of new cases and the COVID test positivity rate in San Mateo County met the criteria for the orange tier, but the state’s rules require counties to hit those targets for two straight weeks to advance. The number of new cases in the county has remained flat since then, with just under 50 being reported each day on average in the county of more than 750,000 people, according to data collected by this news organization.
San Mateo would be by far the most populous county yet to reach the the orange stage — just three others, which put together are home to about 40,000 residents, have reached that level or the least-restrictive yellow tier.
In addition, several large counties where COVID rates have been far higher will be eligible to leave the state’s most-restrictive purple tier on Tuesday, including Monterey, San Joaquin, Sacramento, San Diego and Riverside.
The looser restrictions would take effect Wednesday.
With cases declining and vaccinations ramping up, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials hinted last week they could soon announce the creation of a fifth “green tier” that would remove limits on businesses and gatherings. But they have not detailed what it would take for counties to reach that stage.
San Mateo was along with Marin County the first in the Bay Area to graduate out of the most-restrictive stage in California’s reopening system on Feb. 23. Every other Bay Area county has since joined them in the red tier, and some of the largest in Southern California same after state officials hit a goal of distributing 2 million vaccine doses in vulnerable ZIP codes, which triggered relaxed rules for entering that stage.
State data showed the rate of new cases in Marin County last week was too high for it to advance to the orange tier. San Francisco met the criteria for that level last week, but won’t be eligible to advance until next week.
Check back for updates.