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Californians will soon have a new goal in the state’s multi-level reopening structure: green.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday the state was adding a green level to the reopening plan, which assigns colored labels to counties based on the extent of the virus and the types of activities allowed.
“We are literally working on a green level,” Newsom said during a visit to a Southern California vaccination site, “and have been for several months, in anticipation of that bright light at the end of that tunnel. We are working on it. We will start to socialize this.
When the tier system was announced last August, there were four color tiers: purple, for counties at the most restrictive tier, plus red, orange, and yellow. Newsom said at the time that the state deliberately left out a green level. “We don’t believe there is a green light that says, ‘Get back to the way things were or get back to a pre-pandemic state of mind,’ he said.
During Wednesday’s briefing, Newsom touted the drop in the number of cases and hospitalizations statewide, marking a dramatic turnaround after the winter surge.
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in California is at the lowest level since mid-November, according to the state’s latest data report. Statewide, 3,744 COVID patients were hospitalized on Monday, up from a peak of 21,597 on January 4. In the Bay Area, hospitals counted 500 COVID-19 patients in the latest report.
“We’re in a completely different place than we were six and eight weeks ago,” Newsom said. But he urged people to stay vigilant against the virus. “We are still seeing too many lives lost. This disease continues to be fatal. This disease continues to be ubiquitous. It’s not a spring break. This disease is not going to take off in the summer. “
He said that unlike other state governors, he would not be lifting mask warrants or capacity limits on public places anytime soon.
“California wants to double our progress and we want to get through the next few weeks, so when you get to this magical place that we’ve all been waiting for, and it’s herd immunity, we can see a semblance of normalcy returning to our daily life. Newsom said.
Newsom also said it expects California to meet its goal of delivering 2 million doses of the vaccine to vulnerable communities by Friday, which would open red level status to most counties in the world. State, including Sonoma and Contra Costa counties in the Bay Area. All other Bay Area counties are already in the red level.
California officials said last week they would relax the parameters required for counties to move from level to level, based on the number of low-income residents who have received vaccines statewide. Newsom said the current vaccination rate in the state is 1.9 million.
Aidin Vaziri is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]
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