Per the Monterey County Health Department News Release this evening: Today Governor Newsom announced revised criteria for loosening and tightening restrictions on activities. The new program, Blueprint for a Safer Economy, replaces the County Data Monitoring List for determining what business can and cannot open.
The new program assigns each county to a tier based on case rate and positivity rate. These two rates are being used to determine the spread of the virus in each county.
Currently, Monterey County is in the widespread (purple) tier. Monterey County’s metrics as of today:
15.5 New COVID-19 positive cases per 100K
10.9% Positivity rate
For Monterey County to move to a less restrictive tier the case rate needs to be 4-7 daily new cases (per 100K) and 5-8% positivity rate. More information about the tiers are available https://covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy/
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will assess indicators weekly, publishing updated data starting on September 8, 2020. A County must remain in the current tier for a minimum of three weeks before moving to a different tier and can only move one tier at a time even if metrics qualify for a different tier.
In his press conference today, the Governor announced additional changes to industry restrictions in each tier. Starting Monday, August 31st, hair salons and barbershops can open indoors with modifications in Monterey County. All retail may open indoors with capacity limited to 25%. Grocery store capacity must be limited to 50%. Shopping Centers (indoor malls, destination shopping centers, swap meets) can also open with restrictions including operating at 25% capacity, and closure of common areas and indoor dining at food courts. Guidance is available at
https://covid19.ca.gov/industry-guidance/.
