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Alameda County was among the three latest counties in the greater Bay Area to fall out of the state’s most-restrictive coronavirus reopening tier Tuesday, bringing the number of the region’s counties in the red tier to eight.
Alameda, Santa Cruz and Solano counties all moved out of the purple tier of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy following declines in their case and test positivity rates.
Whereas most business sectors were required to operate outdoors or remain closed under purple tier restrictions, the tier changes effective Wednesday will allow the three counties to resume indoor operations at 10%-25% percent capacities for businesses like gyms, restaurants, movie theaters, museums, zoos and aquariums.
The move also keeps the Pleasanton Unified School District on track to reopen middle and high schools effective this Thursday (March 11), district officials confirmed to the Weekly.
“I want to express my gratitude for the PUSD elementary team members who worked diligently to get schools ready for the return of students and staff beginning last week, as well as to our secondary school teams who are working to be ready for our middle and high school students on Thursday,” PUSD Superintendent David Haglund said in a statement.
“I am grateful for each of you, as we all have important roles to play in the days and weeks ahead. Let’s continue to collaborate and do what we need to do to keep our community safe — and our schools open,” he added. “I am incredibly proud of us. Specifically, how we all have come together — to show up and to be there for our students in a time of great need. It’s the US in PUSD that makes Pleasanton a place that inspires students to make a better world.”
Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss also warned that the risk of contracting the coronavirus still requires residents to take caution, especially with the majority of county residents not yet receiving a vaccine.
“Alameda County’s case rate is on the decline and vaccinations of vulnerable residents and our frontline workers are progressing but the COVID-19 pandemic is not over,” Moss said in a statement. “As more activities and businesses open indoors and more people from different households mix, the risk of becoming infected increases.”
Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel said that while the pandemic has not completely abated, the tier change and the county’s vaccination progress offer a clear path to recovery.
“This change is a sign of our community’s commitment to health and to each other,” Newel said. “The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.”
Key restrictions lifted in Pleasanton and the rest of Alameda County due to the red tier status include:
* Restaurants can offer indoor dining at 25% maximum capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
* Retail stores expand to 50% maximum capacity and food courts permitted with indoor dining restrictions.
* Grocery stores can expand to full capacity while following retail industry guidance.
* Movie theaters can reopen at 25% maximum capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
* Museums, zoos and aquariums can reopen at 25% maximum capacity.
* Gyms, fitness centers and studios (including at hotels) can open indoors at 10% maximum capacity. Climbing walls are permitted.
Recent changes to the state’s guidance on crowds at large outdoor venues will allow the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and the Oakland Coliseum in Alameda County to reopen after April 1.
The state also plans to modify the thresholds for assignment to each tier of the blueprint in the coming days, based on the number of vaccines administered in the state’s hardest-hit communities.
The threshold changes — which would include pushing the number of cases per day per 100,000 residents required for purple tier assignment from seven to 10 — could potentially keep the Bay Area’s red tier counties out of the purple tier for much longer.
As of Tuesday, only Contra Costa, Monterey and Sonoma counties remain under purple tier restrictions in the 11-county greater Bay Area.
— Story by Bay City News Service, with Pleasanton Weekly editor Jeremy Walsh contributing localized information.
Anyone know, Now that we are in Red category, can we attend high school sports such as Football?
“Fifteen days to flatten the curve…”
352 days later
“might have to stay in lockdown another 4 months until July”
Only our best and brightest are sent to Washington DC. <—sarcasm
Dan
BobB,
15 days was a Fauci thing.
Trump, like any good executive, relied on his experts. The problem was, his “expert” has been consistently WRONG about the science.
Fauci and the National health establishment is a joke. Just like that incoherent Biden.
Dan
“Thank goodness vaccines are rolling out…”
Thanks to Trump.
The vaccines are being rolled out not because of Trump, and not because of Biden, but because scientists had been working on mRNA and adenovirus vaccines for other diseases and were able to adapt them extremely quickly.
Then, the entire government—both parties—spent a ton of taxpayer dollars in preorders to fund the manufacturing.
Trump’s administration was a mess for logistics. But so is Newsom’s. It’s not because of their political leanings, but because they were both more concerned with how they looked in the news than with the difficult planning required for effective work. Thankfully, our government funded research programs were built long before and are effective. And there will be enough vaccine supplies in a month or two to make getting them relatively easier even with an unprepared state government.
“A snail was moving faster than vaccines were rolling out under Trump.”
Oh for crying out aloud!
Do you have ANY idea what it takes to design, engineer, manufacture and distribute 100’s of millions of doses of a new vaccine for a novel virus??
Trump and his team did all of this in UNDER A YEAR!!!
You’ve spent too much time in quasi-government service and know next to nothing about creating something and it shows with your statement. Truly breathtaking in its ignorance.
As someone who has worked in the tech sector his whole life I can tell you that you have absolutely NO IDEA what you are talking about.
Sincerely,
Dan
“The vaccines are being rolled out not because of Trump, and not because of Biden, but because scientists had been working on mRNA and adenovirus vaccines for other diseases and were able to adapt them extremely quickly.”
Bull. Demonstrably false. See my comment to Kathleen.
You know next to noting about the coordination between the government and private sector wrt to the development of this vaccine.
The vaccine was provided to the States. The STATES were responsible for distribution within their own borders. IT was NOT the Feds responsibility. Not one bit.
You and Kathleen don’t understand federalism at all and you never will.
I don’t blame Biden either. I blame the States. They knew what was coming and STILL managed to flub it up.
Enough of this nonsense.
Dan
No Kathleen, you really don’t if you really believe what you said about Trump.
Demonstrably false and EVERYONE knows this.
Tired of the GD lies said about that man.
Dan
This discussion has devolved and the thread will be closed.
@DKHSK,
Maybe you don’t recall, but “15 days to slow the spread” was a Trump thing. Here is the archive.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200317002528/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf
Thank goodness vaccines are rolling out and many people are being responsible.
15 Days was a Fauci thing. Wear A Mask, Wash Your Hands, Socially Distance. Masks not being useful was also a Fauci thing.
A snail was moving faster than vaccines were rolling out under Trump.
Dan, I understand far more than you would like to believe.
Kathleen. Dan is correct. Your maintain you know more than we would believe. When you make that kind of statement you confirm your ignorance. Do you have any practical business experience?
John, yes I do have business experience. Dan, I do believe it. Trump started the pandemic with “it’s only one case”, “we’ll look into using bleach”, and letting governors fight over PPE, but made sure he was vaccinated on his way out the door (I’m fine with this, but not his hiding it). It’s okay if you like him; it so happens that I don’t.
It is not a matter of liking Trump. He is a arrogant New Yorker, not readily likeable. It is a matter of you providing anecdotal comments that a have no relevance to the accomplishments. Somehow I doubt any real business experience on your part based on your comments.