Kern moves to Red Tier (Tier 2) on State's COVID-19 framework

Additional businesses and activities allowed to resume with modifications on March 24.

On March 23, the State announced that Kern County has moved from the Purple Tier (Tier 1) to the less restrictive Red Tier (Tier 2) of the State’s COVID-19 blueprint, effective tomorrow, Wednesday, March 24. The State’s blueprint allows counties moving from the Purple to Red Tier to reopen indoor operations at additional businesses and allows certain activities to resume with modifications.

Every county is assigned to one of four tiers based on the adjusted case rate, testing positivity rate, and health equity metric. Below is a summary of Kern County’s current metrics and a comparison of Kern’s metrics last week:

The State’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy requires a County to remain in a tier for at least three weeks and meet the metrics of the less restrictive tier for at least two weeks before moving down a tier. If our metrics continue to improve, Kern County could move to the orange tier as early as April 7.

Some highlights of expanded operations and activities in the Red Tier include:

• Restaurants: open indoors at 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer

• Gyms: open indoors at 10 percent capacity

• Movie theaters: open indoors at 25 percent capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer

• Museums, zoos and aquariums can open indoors

• Hotels and lodging can open fitness centers at 10 percent capacity

To learn more about the State framework, visit http://www.covid19.ca.gov or http://www.kernpublichealth.com/2019-novel-coronavirus/.