Trinity, Alpine counties move to ‘moderate’ orange tier

As the number of new Covid-19 cases begins to decrease throughout the state, Trinity and Alpine counties were moved from the “substantial” red tier to the “moderate” orange tier on the state’s reopening tier system.

However, 54 of the state’s 58 counties still remain in the most restrictive tier on the system, California Health and Human Services officials announced at a news conference Tuesday. The 54 counties in the purple or “widespread” tier as of Feb.2 include 978 public school districts and 1,302 charter schools, serving a total of 6,068,011 students — 99.93 % of the state’s total K-12 enrollment.

Sierra County remained in the orange tier Tuesday, and Mariposa remained in the red tier.

Under the state’s guidelines, schools can offer in-person instruction after remaining in the red tier for 14 days. Schools in counties in the purple tier may offer in-person instruction to kindergarten and elementary students as long as their “average adjusted case rate” is below 25 cases per 100,000 population per day in that county, and they file a Covid Safety Plan.

As of Tuesday, counties that had an average adjusted case rate below 25 per 100,000 population include: Alpine, Amador, Del Norte, Lake, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Modoc, Placer, Plumas, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sierra Siskiyou, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yolo.