Santa Clara County plans to maintain its current restrictions for most indoor activities, even if it moves into a new tier of Gov. Newsom’s reopening system as it is expected to do early next week, a top county official said Thursday.
Newsom’s new color-coded framework tracks counties’ positivity rate and cases per 100,000 residents. Counties may move from purple (widespread transmission) to red (substantial) to orange (moderate) to yellow (minimal) after spending a minimum of three weeks in each category.
Based on Santa Clara’s coronavirus test rate, state officials have informed the county that it’s likely to jump from the lowest, “purple” tier into the “red” tier of the new color-coded system — which tracks positivity and case rates — starting next Tuesday, County CEO Jeff Smith told this news organization. Under state guidance, the move would allow the county reopen indoor restaurants movie theaters, places of worship and museums at 25% capacity — but that doesn’t mean the county will choose to do so.
“We won’t be allowing indoor theaters or indoor dining,” Smith said. “Being in a congregation or a theater or a sports venue or in a restaurant gathering is a very risky behavior.”
Like most large counties in California, Santa Clara began the week in the lowest tier, with a case rate topping eight infections per 100,000 residents, indicating widespread transmission. But because the county has done more testing on average than the state overall, that rate has been adjusted downward to 6.7 cases per 100,000 — making it eligible for the “red” tier alongside a handful of other counties, including San Francisco and Napa.
When the new system was rolled out, Santa Clara and most other Bay Area counties gave the green light for salons, barbershops and malls to reopen, or continue operating, at limited 25% capacity. But the “risk reduction” model for easing coronavirus restrictions implemented by Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody in July is unlikely to change significantly in the coming weeks, Smith said — meaning the county’s reopening rules will likely remain stricter than what is allowed by the state.
“In our situation, the county order would prevail in a number of those situations,” Smith said. “The public health officer made the decision that indoor gatherings are much greater risk than outdoor gatherings, which is substantiated in the studies.”
Santa Clara isn’t the only county to hold off on reopenings. San Francisco, which was initially placed into the “red” zone for its lower case and positivity rate, stuck to its more restrictive order despite the go-ahead from the state to reopen additional indoor services. Napa meanwhile followed state guidance to reopen indoor dining.
In a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, County Counsel James Williams said Santa Clara County will strive for “as little friction as possible” between state and local directives when it comes to industry-specific guidance — but that when there is a discrepancy, the more restrictive order will still apply.
“The local orders, like our county’s risk reduction order and associated local directives, remain in effect,” Williams said. “That includes our density requirements, strict face covering requirements and social distancing protocol requirements.”
