El Dorado County and South Lake Tahoe move into less restrictive Orange Tier

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - El Dorado County’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Nancy Williams, today announced the County has moved within the State’s new COVID-19 framework for reopening from the Red tier into the less restrictive Orange tier, effective immediately.

“Governor Newsom today officially moved El Dorado County into the Orange tier based on our case rate and test positivity percentage, allowing many businesses to reopen for the first time since March and others to expand their operations, which is very good news for our economy,” said Williams. “However, as I have stated before, just because something is allowed does not necessarily make it safe.”

Williams said that even though more business sectors are expanding and activities are open, the best way to prevent the County from regressing to the Red tier remains doing the very things that moved the County to the Orange tier.

“Moving to the Orange tier should not be seen as a green light to stop wearing a face covering, keeping at least six feet from others, minimizing mixing with non-household members and washing your hands regularly,” Williams said. “It’s critical, with this positive move forward, to continue to exercise our personal
responsibility to ensure we keep our case level and test positivity rate low.”

A county moves into the Orange tier if it has a case rate less than 4.0 per 100,000 residents and a test positivity of less than 5.0. The State records El Dorado County’s population as 193,098. For the most recent week that was assessed, El Dorado County had a 1.5 per 100,000 case rate and 1.4% test positivity.

The most recently calculated test positivity is in the least restrictive Yellow tier, but counties are assigned to the most restrictive tier if its metrics fall into more than one tier.

“As positive as this news is, it requires our continued efforts to stay in the Orange tier and move toward Yellow,” Williams said. “I urge everyone to consider this expansion into the Orange tier as allowing the option to do more, but not necessarily a requirement to do so. Even in the Orange tier, we still need to take
the same personal precautions we have been to keep our County healthy.”

New guidelines for Moderate (orange) tier:

Restaurants:
Indoor with modifications
Capacity must be limited to 50% or 200 people, whichever is less

Wineries:
Indoor with modifications
Capacity must be limited to 25% or 100 people, whichever is less

Bars, breweries, and distilleries: Outdoor only with modifications

Churches:
Indoor with modifications
Indoor activities must be limited to 50% of capacity or 200 people, whichever is less

Gyms and Fitness Centers:
Indoor with modifications
Capacity must be limited to 25%
Indoor pools can open

Hotels, lodging and VHRs:
Open with modifications
Fitness centers can open to 25% capacity
Indoor pools can open

Office
Indoor with modifications, encourage telework

This is only a short list and didn't include those with industry standards to follow. For more, visit https://covid19.ca.gov/industry-guidance/.