Five counties move from purple to red in state’s four-tiered system
State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced Tuesday that five counties have moved from the purple to red tier in the California’s color-coded tracking system: Amador, Orange, Placer, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. If these counties stay in the red tier for 14 consecutive days, they will be able to reopen for in-person instruction, according to state guidelines.
Gov. Newsom also announced during his noon news briefing that the state has teamed up with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that funds “Sesame Street,” to release three new public service announcements featuring the characters Elmo, Grover and Oscar the Grouch highlighting back-to-school safety messages about wearing masks and other health precautions. The short videos were funded through the Skoll Foundation, founded by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, and his Participant media company, as part of Sesame Workshop’s #CaringForEachOther initiative to support families during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a news release.
School is starting again but for many it looks very different.
We teamed up with @SesameWorkshop @SkollFoundation & @Participant to teach kids healthy habits for staying safe during #COVID19.
Join @Elmo in getting ready for school! #CaringForEachOther pic.twitter.com/qGKYYKFvpl
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) September 8, 2020
Although both Newsom and Ghaly said Covid-19 cases are decreasing statewide overall, they warned that spikes might be seen in the next few weeks based on gatherings that occurred over Labor Day weekend. Ghaly said 33 counties are now in the purple tier (indicating widespread cases), 14 are in red (indicating substantial cases), nine are in the orange tier (indicating moderate cases) and two are in the yellow tier (indicating minimal cases).