Yesterday the state reported that San Diego County’s case numbers exceeded the threshold to stay in the “red” tier. This means that if our numbers miss the mark again next week, we will be moved down to the “purple” tier.
The county’s case numbers have been very close to the maximum of seven per 100,000 people for the past several weeks (they’ve actually been higher than seven, but we get credit for testing more than the state average and for our focus on populations most vulnerable to COVID-19).
What would moving to the purple tier mean?
Restaurants may only operate outdoors
Places of worship may only operate outdoors
Indoor gyms must close
Indoor museums must close
Maximum occupancy of indoor retail falls from 50% to 25%
A small silver lining for personal care business owners and their patrons is the recent change to what is allowed in the purple tier. Hair stylists, massage therapists and others can now remain open, with precautions in place.
You can see a handy comparison chart here and the full list of rules for each tier here. The California Department of Public Health assesses counties on a weekly basis. The next report is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Complacency = risk
When asked by the media at yesterday’s news conference, the county health officer said there is no one reason why our cases are increasing, but the trend is real. She urged everyone not to become complacent with the “non-pharmaceutical interventions” that have proven effective in slowing spread. What does that mean? It’s basically all the things we can control, like washing our hands, wearing face coverings and maintaining a 6-foot distance from people outside our household.
Nicholas Christakis, a Yale professor, sociologist and physician, just wrote a book about the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic on the way we live. He talks about the swiss cheese stack. Each slice has random holes, but if you layer enough slices, all of the holes are eventually covered. In other words, one approach is not enough. We need everyone to do all they can to limit the spread.
Case numbers
