By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Stanislaus likely in red tier until June 15
covid

The chances that Stanislaus County will move into the less restrictive orange tier for COVID-19 are diminishing.

"We don't have the metrics for orange yet and probably won't get there by June 15," Dr. Julie Vaishampayan told the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors of Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, Stanislaus County was at 7.8 percent new case rate per day per 100,000 residents, which was adjusted to 7.6 percent for tier assignment. The testing positivity was at 3.1 percent and 4.6 percent for underserved communities.

The orange tier requires counties meet a daily case rate between 2 to 5.9 percent and a testing positive rate of 2 to 4.9 percent.

Counties have to meet the metrics for two weeks before they can move into a new tier, so even if Stanislaus County reached the criteria for orange, it wouldn't be until June 15 when the county would be moved. Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced a statewide re-opening and an end to the tier system starting on June 15, should rates continue to drop.

Stanislaus County is now one of eight counties in the state that remain in the red tier, which signifies COVID-19 is still substantial in a community. Thirty-five counties are in the orange tier and 15 are in the yellow tier.

Starting on June 15, California residents who are fully vaccinated can remove their masks in any setting and businesses won't have to have capacity limits or enforce social distancing.

The California Department of Public Health reported that half of the state's residents 18 and over have been fully vaccinated.

On Tuesday the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency reported the county has recorded 56,043 positive COVID-19 cases and 1,066 deaths.

For vaccine locations in Stanislaus County visit http://schsa.org/coronavirus/vaccine/.